Sponsor: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
Dates: March 2026 to July 2027
Researchers: Kathleen D. Klinich, Miriam Manary, Nichole Orton, Kyle Boyle, Brian Eby, Jennifer Bishop
Abstract:
Recent work funded by NIDILRR and conducted at UMTRI demonstrated that it may be feasible to use WC19 wheelchairs as aircraft seating if the wheelchair is secured by 4-point strap tiedowns, and the occupant is restrained by the wheelchair-mounted lap belt as well as an additional lap belt anchored to the aircraft. This result was based on evaluation of fifteen WC19 wheelchairs tested using adapted versions of FAA horizontal and vertical dynamic test procedures for aircraft seating, as well as static tests in five directions, where no catastrophic failures occurred and no substantial residual deformation that would block egress was observed.
For this project, we will conduct similar testing using wheelchairs that meet ISO 7176-19 but not WC19. The key difference between the standards is that WC19 requires the option for and testing with a wheelchair-mounted lap belt, while ISO 7176-19 does not. As a result, WC19 loads the wheelchair frame more severely than ISO 7176-19 procedures.
We will evaluate ISO 7176-19 wheelchairs according to adapted FAA procedures in two phases. In the first phase, we will purchase four manual and four power wheelchairs representing a variety of styles and manufacturers. We will test 2 manual and 2 power wheelchairs under horizontal testing conditions, and the other four under vertical testing conditions. We would then test all wheelchairs without substantial residual deformation under the static loading conditions. If results are similar to the findings from previous work using WC19 wheelchairs, we plan to conduct another round of testing using additional wheelchair models, so a similar number of 7176-19 models are evaluated. If results from the first round of testing are unacceptable and cannot be used to support use of ISO 7176-19 wheelchairs as aircraft seating, we would not conduct further testing.