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INNOVATION RESOURCES

Child Aviation Restraint System (CARES)

Breakthrough:
A lightweight belt and buckle safety harness for children on plane flights.

Inventor:
Louise Stoll, United States

Financial reward:
$3.5 million+

The Story:
Child Aviation Restraint System (CARES)

For Louise Stoll the “eureka” moment came as she was watching her pregnant daughter struggle to get off a plane with a toddler on her hip, a diaper slung across her shoulder, and a 20-pound car seat in her hand. She felt sure there had to be a better way of safely strapping infants in plane seats without parents having to carry on bulky equipment.

On arriving home she sketched out a few ideas for a lightweight belt and buckle restraint system for use in planes. She called it the Child Aviation REstraint System, or CARES for short.

As a former assistant secretary of transportation in the Clinton administration she knew how federal government operated and how to research but was unfamiliar with the steps an inventor has to take for an idea to see the light of day.

Meeting with Patent Attorney

In early 2000 Stoll met with a patent attorney who told her that her idea was patentable and she gave him permission to file with the U.S. Patent Office. Her journey to being an inventor and entrepreneur had begun, but she was in for a long ride.

It took two and a half years for the patent to be issued, and for most of this time Stoll kept her job as an executive at a large non-profit organization. After 18 months she learned the patent was pending and that’s when she quit full-time employment to find a manufacturing partner.

Researching Companies

The novice inventor started with child-safety companies thinking they would be familiar with the certifications needed. However, as she discovered, highway and airline safety requirements go through different areas of government and child-safety companies did not have the right background or experience.

After pursuing a number of other different avenues involving a lot of “cold calling” she hooked up with AmSafe Aviation in Arizona. They manufacture most of the world’s airplane seat belts and liked Stoll’s idea. When her patent was awarded in June 2002 she signed a licensing agreement with them and the company started to work on developing a prototype based on Stoll’s sketches, and they conducted in-house testing.

Passing Safety Tests

CARES passed all the safety tests with flying colors but this wasn’t the end of the process, it had still to be approved by the FAA. Certification here took nearly four years, from early 2003 until late 2006. The focus was on the effect of the product on airline seats and the convenience of other passengers.

Eventually CARES was certified in September 7 2006, the first alternative to car child seat’s permitted on planes.

They started to roll off the production line in Phoenix and her website went live. Now adults did not have to put their backs out or endure aching shoulders when taking children on planes. The product comes in a little 6-inch stuff sack and only weighs 1 lb. It’s made from the same industrial strength webbing as adult seat belts and is adjustable to fit virtually any size of plane seat. The restraint system slips over the seat and is harnessed around the child and takes about one minute to learn how to install.

Getting into Retail Outlets

For the first 18 months CARES was only available through her company’s website, www.kidsflysafe.com but now it’s also sold in retail stores in more than a dozen countries and has been certified in Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore and by most major airlines registered in Europe and Asia.

Stoll’s patience and perseverance paid off. After a long development process her invention is flying off the shelves as more than 40,000 CARES have been sold and Stoll heads up the family-run business that includes her husband and daughter.

[NEXT STORY]Article by: Paul Arnold

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