Fluid power saves lives.
That is how Captain Stewart McQuillan addressed the audience at the National Fluid Power Association’s annual conference in February. McQuillan, Colonel Sean McClung and Kristen Christy opened the conference to highlight their foundation and introduce the industry to a device he created to allow him to continue flying helicopters despite being paralyzed after an issue with his Royal Air Force fighter jet crushed his spinal cord.
The three are founders of the NV3 Foundation, which aims to build a fully self-contained village for veterans with housing and medical facilities. The organization will also teach new hands-on careers or allow vets to restart old ones. It will build a thriving social community of like-minded vets and their families, giving full community support to veterans all day and night.
Captain Stewart McQuillan shows Mary Gannon the inner workings of one of many helicopters he’s built over the years.
This idea is modeled after a successful venture in the UK after World War I when veterans returned home ill with tuberculosis. They gathered them all to recuperate, live together and work in trades. It was hailed as “the most successful social medical experiment of our time.” The NV3 Foundation was established to give veterans purpose once again and prevent the massive suicide epidemic among the veteran community.
When asked why he said fluid power saves lives, McQuillan, a pilot and electrical engineer, noted that he was one such veteran in a very dark, bleak place after his accident. It wasn’t until he started working with other engineers to design the Aeroleg, an FAA-approved mechanism to enable paraplegics to fly, that he found new purpose.
When he started designing the device, he originally turned to hydraulics. He was very familiar with this technology, as it is used largely in helicopter controls. But the team quickly realized it was not the best option and shifted toward pneumatics. They needed a device that could provide a gentle touch to simulate the use of a leg to control the pedals while keeping it proportional to the input.
The device features a skeletal frame and includes two Festo pneumatic actuators — one controls the ankle and the other controls the knee. A small gas pump powers the actuators. Proportional valves and regulators are all designed in the circuit to change an analog signal from a thumb controller to a digital signal to smoothly control the leg.
Captain Stewart McQuillan shows the Aeroleg, an FAA-approved mechanism to enable paraplegics to fly. The device uses pneumatics technologies to mimic foot and leg control in helicopters.
McQuillan, McClung and Christy presented at the NFPA event for two reasons. One was to educate the industry about the Aeroleg and work with industry partners to achieve a more modern, lightweight design that can still obtain FAA approval. The other was to educate the industry on the NV3 Foundation and find more partners to support its mission.
When I first started covering the fluid power industry 20 years ago, I learned very quickly that most of the manufacturers that have been around for 60 to 80 years were founded after World War II by veterans who learned valuable skills in the military and brought them home to create the technologies and industry we know today. I can’t think of a more innovative technology for us to get behind or a mission to support than helping the veterans who have served our country and built the fluid power industry.
I encourage you to learn more about the NV3 Foundation’s efforts by visiting their website at nv3foundation.org. Veterans have built this industry, so let’s keep them innovating.
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