Members of San Francisco State’s Student Section of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) are working with Whirlwind on building a hand-powered front-wheel-drive tricycle as a club project. The club has been responsible for welding, fabricating, and contributing to the iterative design process through testing. “The team of undergraduate students is learning … [Read more...] about ASME Student Project
Articles
Expanding the Whirlwind Team
We have met some great people through our partnership with United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) Wheels for Humanity in Jogja, Indonesia and our manufacturing partnership with PT Dharma in Jakarta. Recently, Indriyanto and Maria (at right) joined the Whirlwind team to help with engineering and sales. Indriyanto’s background in large-scale manufacturing adds a unique body of knowledge to … [Read more...] about Expanding the Whirlwind Team
The RoughRider Comes to the US!
Experience the outdoors like never before Whirlwind is now taking advance orders for the RoughRider on our Buy One Give One (BOGO) program. Hundreds of wheelchair riders who have contacted us are excited about where they’ll go in their own RoughRiders. The RoughRider was designed to handle rough outdoor conditions like the broken up sidewalks and dirt paths commonly found in … [Read more...] about The RoughRider Comes to the US!
Bolivian Disabled Activists Fight for Rights
Lack of mobility is only the first of many barriers that people with disabilities have to overcome in order to be able to fully participate in society. Perhaps no better example of this was on display in La Paz, Bolivia on February 23 when a large group of mobility impaired demonstrators confronted police at the end of a 3-month cross-country march. The march was in support of … [Read more...] about Bolivian Disabled Activists Fight for Rights
Ralf Testing Tire
Whirlwind Founder and Chief Engineer Ralf Hotchkiss spent most of the summer in Chinandega, Nicaragua working on, among other things, the “thorny” issue of flat-free tires. Above is a photo of Ralf at work. When traveling, Ralf rides a standard RoughRider off the assembly line and interacts with a diverse group of people with disabilities who trust him well enough to give … [Read more...] about Ralf Testing Tire