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Inventors have high hopes for airplane hose
Delta pilot and retired sheet metal worker hope their system will become standard equipment on airport jetways.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
JAMESTOWN — Most of the time, it's a problem well beneath the notice of airline passengers — literally.
When an airplane is parked at a gate, it gets an infusion of hot or cold air (depending on the weather) through a 14-inch hose that can be longer than 100 feet.
H.G. 'Boomer' Bombardi (left) and Dan Lyons (right) have developed the BOOM-Air, a retractable hose that can be used to help cool airplanes parked at airport gates.For ground crews, folding and unfolding that hose is an arduous task. Hoses kink and bend, rip and tear.
Sometimes, they even get sucked into aircraft engines.
Two inventors and a Greene County manufacturer say they have an answer: Don't work for the hose; let the hose work for you.
Harry G. "Boomer" Bombardi, a Delta airline pilot, and Dan Lyons, a retired sheet metal worker, perfected the Boom Air Hose Management System through a blend of inspiration and elbow grease. The expertise of workers at Twist Inc. gave the project a boost, too.
In tests at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, the system has won the support of ground crews, Bombardi said.
"Now we have to win the hearts and minds of the guys who spend the money," said Don Maynard, Twist sales manager.
"One (worker's) back injury will pay for the unit," Lyons said.
But the entrepreneurs' ultimate goal is as simple as it is ambitious.
"We'd like to have this as standard equipment on an (airport) jetway," said Bombardi, 52, a Beavercreek resident.
Though the product is only now being tested, it has a history of more than six years. A prototype was developed in Lyons' garage outside Jamestown, then sold to Ogden, Utah-based Jetway Corp.
But that was before the events of Sept. 11, 2001, doused aviation spending nearly everywhere.
"Nine-eleven put the kibosh on everything," Bombardi said.
Jetway lost an exclusive right to make the system but kept the first prototype, Bombardi said. He and Lyons, 63, were left to build a second prototype. Workers at Twist did just that, working essentially off a verbal description of the device.
Driven by four tracks, the nylon-coated hose is pushed from or pulled to an aluminum-and-steel housing. Electronic sensors control the precise length of hose.
At one point, Bombardi had $40,000 of his own money sunk into the project. But Twist has shouldered most of the $500,000 spent so far, Maynard said.
Bombardi isn't complaining, though.
"Would I do it again?" he said. "Yeah. It's been fun."
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2390 or tgnau@DaytonDaily
News.com.
Boom Air Hose Management System
Hose length: 70 feet.
Housing size: 15.5 feet long, 34 inches wide
Patents: 3 U.S.,
2 British, 1 Spanish
Estimated cost if regular production is achieved: About $35,000 per unit
Manufacturers: Twist Inc. and Flexfab. The unit will probably be assembled in Twist's Xenia facility.
