The present invention relates to an equipment consisting of a combination of several devices for transporting a wheel chair-bound individual from his own wheel chair to a chair in an airplane. The invention is therefore aimed at entirely removing the utilization of human lifting power for the purpose of sparing the wheel chair-bound individual as well as the flight crew, cumbersome and demanding lifts during this transportation.

The wheel chair used by the wheel chair-bound individual is normally to wide to be able to be rolled along the middle gangway in a conventional airplane. A wheel chair especially designed for this purpose must therefore be used. In order to avoid having to carry the wheel chair-bound individual from the passage way into the airplane the wheel chair-bound individual is therefore lifted over to the airplane wheel chair by flight personnel, whereafter the wheel chair is rolled forwards to the desired row of seats and the wheel chair-bound individual can be lifted over into his/her chair. In the event that the wheel chair-bound individual must be carried from ground level up along a mobile airplane staircase the transport becomes exceedingly demanding for the flight crew and of course especially troublesome for the wheel chair-bound individual.

An object of the present invention is to eliminate the use of human lifting power when transporting a wheel chair-bound individual from a wheel chair of his/her own into a airplane chair. The wheel chair-bound individual is lifted up from a wheel chair of his/her own by means of a mechanical lifting device and the wheel chair of his/her own is exchanged for a wheel chair adapted to the airplane and into which the wheel chair-bound individual is placed. If there is a passage way at the airport the wheelchair is thereafter rolled into the airplane and forwards to the desired row of seats. If a passage way is lacking, the airplane wheel chair with the wheel chair-bound individual is lifted up from the ground level and into the airplane by means of a wheel chair elevator according to SE-patent nr. 9500995-7. With the airplane wheel chair standing at the desired row of seats, the wheel chair-bound individual is then pushed from the wheel chair and out on tracks placed in the row of seats, to the desired chair. In this position the wheel chair-bound individual lifts himVherself up by using as support the armrests of the chair whereupon the tracks can be drawn aside and the wheel chair-bound individual can be seated in his/her chair.

Not during any phase of the transportation has any need for the use of human lifting power arised with the exception of the short lift that the wheel chair-bound individual executes by his/her own to allow the tracks to be pulled away. Not in those cases either when a passage way is lacking at the airport, there has been no need of human lifting power to lift the wheel chair-bound individual sitting in the specially built airplane wheel chairneeded. Upon lifting up of the airplane wheel chair from ground level in a mobile staircase a wheel chair elevator according to SE-patent nr. 9500995-7 can be used.

The invention will in the following be described more in detail in connection with enclosed drawings where Fig. 1 shows examples of devices that are included in an equipment according to the invention. Fig. 2 shows a device for the lifting up of a airplane wheel chair with the wheel chair-bound individual sitting therein from ground level and into the airplane, which device consists of a wheel chair elevator according to SE-patent nr. 9500995-7. Fig 2. also shows how the wheel chair-bound individual is brought to the desired row of seats and thereafter to the desired chair.

In Fig. 1 A a mechanical lifting device is shown in perspective which consists of two vertical suporting legs 1 and 2 which at there upper ends are connected by means of a horizontal lifting beam 3. Both of these legs rest at their lower ends upon a provided with wheels 4 equipped supporting beam 5 and are braced by means of the rods 6 and 7 respectively. The supporting beam wheel 4 makes it possible to roll the lifting device from one place to another. In the lifting beam 3 there are two swinging lifting arms 8 and 9 journalled in bearings in a plane perpendicular to the lifting beam 3. They are brought to swing by means of a crank mechanism 10 mounted on the lifting beam.

In Fig 1 B there is shown a equipped with lifting belts 1 1 lifting plate 12 which plate is intended to be pushed in underneath the seat of the wheel chair-bound individual's seat when the latter is seated in his/her wheel chair. In Fig 1 C there is shown how the lifting device has been rolled in over the wheel chair-bound individual sitting in his/her wheel chair with supporting legs 1 and 2 on either side of the wheel chair. The lifting belts 1 1 are fastened in the lifting arms 8 and 9 and the wheel chair-bound individual sitting on the lifting plate 12 is lifted up by means of the crank mechanism 10 to such an extent that the wheel chair of his/her own can be rolled aside.

Fig. 1 D shows how the wheel chair-bound individual sitting on the lifting plate 1 hangs in the lifting belts 1 1 of the lifting arms 8 and 9. In order for the wheel chair- bound individual not to fall backwards a belt 13 is fastened around the back of the wheel chair-bound individual. In this position a wheel chair 14 shown in Fig. I E is brought in underneath the wheel chair-bound individual, which wheel chair is specially designed to be enabled to roll in the middle passage of an airplane. The wheel chair-bound individual is lowered onto the airpiane chair's seat 1 6 and is fastened tight to the chair, whereafter the lifting device can be rolled aside, see Fig. 1 G. In the, in the exampel shown in Fig. 1 E, the seat of the airplane chair is equipped with rolls 17 which enable the displacement of the seat across the direction of driving of the wheel chair.

The moving of the wheel chair-bound individual from his/her own wheel chair over into the airplane wheel chair suitably takes place in a particular room at the airport. At those airports that are equipped with passage ways out to the airplanes the wheel chair-bound individual is rolled into the airplane and forwards to the desired row of seats. Two rails are laid down in the airplane chairs and are fastened to the wheel chair so that the seat 16 with the wheel chair-bound individual can be rolled out on the rails and forwards to the desired airplane chair. There the wheel chair-bound individual lifts him-/herself up by using as support the armrests of the chair whereupon the seat 16 with tracks 18 and the lifting plate 12 can be drawn aside and the wheel chair-bound individual can be seated in his/her chair.

If passage ways are not extant at the airport the wheel chair-bound individual is elevated up from the ground level sitting in the airplane wheel chair up into the airplane by means of a wheel chair elevator according to SE-patent nr. 9500995-7 and is placed in the desired airplane chair as has been described above, see Fig. 2.

In an alternative embodiment of parts of the above described equipment the lifting plate 12 is equipped with rolls on its bottom side. The seat of the airplane wheel chair seat 16 is therein fixed and equipped with two in the seat embedded and across the driving direction of the wheel chair oriented grooves. When the wheel chair-bound individual is to be placed in the desired chair the lifting board 1 is rolled in the grooves in the wheel chair seat and out on the rails 18 placed out in the airplane chairs and forwards to the desired chair.