Story by Sarah Vaughn

Five injured veterans will return to flight with the help of mechanical engineering students at the University of Utah and ABLE Pilot.

Sun Valley, IDAHO- Training will begin and will continue until Monday in Sun Valley, Idaho, for five veterans with spinal cord injuries (SCI) who are learning to fly in adaptive chairs, Phoenix 1.0 and improved flight chair Phoenix 1.5.

The first day of training, the veterans will be trained in paragliding.
They will be taught the functions of the flight chairs and how to pilot it. Furthermore, they will be taught how flight chairs work and experience the paragliders about 3 feet off the ground.

Mark Gaskill, from ABLE Pilot, is working with the veterans; he has been working in the area of flight chairs for injured persons with spinal cord.

“ABLE Pilot is an organization committed to getting people with spinal cord injuries, amputations, and neuromuscular diseases safely into air, piloting and flying with the minimum amount of assistance,” said Gaskill. Gaskill initially came to the U. of. U. with the idea to develop adaptive flight.