Ingenious Device

The Pilatus PC-12 is an excellent family transportation airplane, but what if one of the family members is wheelchair-bound and unable to climb the entry stairs? A New York-based company owns two PC-12s and was faced with this problem for one of its frequent travelers. Instead of adapting a wheelchair to somehow fit on the PC-12’s stairs, the company's PC-12 pilot and industrial designer Gideon Clement came up with a simpler idea. He took advantage of the PC-12’s big cargo doorway and designed a lifting system that can load a wheelchair carrying a passenger with a total weight of 300 pounds right into the cabin.

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The usual configuration for carrying a handicapped passenger is to remove one side of a double-club seating area, which leaves room to maneuver a wheelchair, and after boarding place the passenger in the remaining club seats. The lifting system is installed temporarily in the seat-mounting structure next to the cargo door. First, a metal plate is mounted to the seat rails, then the lifting mechanism’s riser is latched to the plate with a simple quick-release mechanism. Attached to the riser is a machined aluminum platform on which the wheelchair sits.

The clever part of the mechanism is how the platform is raised into the airplane. The riser consists of a long jackscrew, and the platform is attached to the nut that rides up and down the jackscrew. Instead of designing a complex integrated motor to raise the platform up and down the jackscrew, Clement chose to use a simple electric drill that connects to a socket to spin the jackscrew and thus raise and lower the platform. The electric drill solution saves weight and eliminates many possible points of failure. And as Clement noted, if the drill fails, it’s easy to find a new one at a local hardware store. He carries two drills with the lift kit, to avoid getting stuck if one drill fails.

Because the system is not permanently installed, no regulatory approval is required. All of the hardware fits into two carry bags, and it can be carried as cargo and used at the destination, so there is no need to worry about how to offload the passenger. Total system weight is about 57 pounds. While the lift is designed for the PC-12, it could be adapted to other aircraft with similarly large and easily accessed cargo doors. In the PC-12 application, the lift is designed to automatically compensate for varying fuel and passenger loads, to avoid overstressing the airframe when it is mounted.

After applying for a patent on the concept, Clement has worked with Pro Star Aviation in New Hampshire to manufacture and distribute the lifting device, which he calls the Pro Star Lift.