Object Timeline

  • We acquired this object.

2020

  • Work on this object began.

2021

2025

  • You found it!

Prototype, AIRA Ventilator

This is a prototype. It is dated 2020. Its medium is metal, plastic, electronics. It is a part of the department.

Robotics engineer Tyler Mantel founded the Ventilator Project to create AIRA, an emergency ventilator that can be stored compactly and mobilized quickly in regions lacking medical stockpiles, from the rural USA to middle-income nations. The prototype for AIRA uses a bee bellows to move air without an external source, enabling the device to be used outside a hospital setting. The FDA approved AIRA for emergency use in March 2021.

It is credited Courtesy of AIRA.

Its dimensions are

H x W x D: 30.5 × 55.9 × 30.5 cm (12 × 22 × 12 in.)

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics.

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If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-4.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/2318805584/ |title=Prototype, AIRA Ventilator |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=7 February 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>