In 2018 an inventor, Andrea Mocellin, developed a folding wheel known as the Revolve. Today this technology has been incorporated into a folding wheelchair to fit into the baggage area of any airliner.
This special wheel features a central hub, 6 folding aluminum structures that take the place of traditional spokes and an aluminum rim divided into 6 interlocking sections. Each of these sections is lined with a foam filled tire.
From folding wheel to folding wheelchair
A locking mechanism positioned in the hub holds the structure in the form of a conventional wheel. When needed, the two sides of the hub open, folding the “spokes of the wheel” as if they were the arms of an umbrella. The result is a folded “cocoon”, much more compact than a normal wheel.
Mocellin's latest invention, I said, is the folding wheelchair Revolve Air. And it incorporates two of these 24-inch folding wheels, joined side by side along a shared axis. A capsule-shaped component accommodates both wheels when folded. The result is a super light and very versatile vehicle.
When it's time to use Revolve Air, the two folding wheels are opened and the capsule that housed them becomes the seat of the wheelchair. A telescopic frame incorporating a small set of front wheels completes the whole. When the time comes to “fold everything up”, the wheelchair folds up into the size of a parallelepiped as big as a piece of luggage that can be carried on an airplane.
