Flying Wheel Chair Sculpture Inspired by Roosevelt Island Morning Jogs

A June 2007 Newsday article just put up online on Wednesday, August 1, 2007, pictures and discusses how a Long Island City based sculptor was inspired to create a wheelchair with wings that would make the viewer question whether it could really fly. The picture presented, see above, reminds me of the fully flyable Aerolights that look like a cross between a stripped down one seat airplane and hang gliders.

Upon seeing this sculpture I immediately was reminded of a wheelchair bicycle I saw go by the Visitor’s Center & Tram station one Sunday afternoon. It was built much like that pictured below and was carrying a wheel chair bound resident of Goldwater hospital out for some fresh air.

All too many of us think only of the hospital residents that are mobile in their chairs and beds and tend to forget about the immobile hospital residents for whom this bicycle chair must seem as if they are actually flying. If I see this real life chair again I hope to video it for you here as it was really inspiring and uplifting to see the joy on that riders face.