From the Reader: Robert Nelson — Humbay Inc.
“HumBay, Inc. is a Delaware corporation whose founder, Robert Nelson, has carried on his family’s legacy of excellence in sales and marketing of innovative products to the aviation industry. His vision brings together an experienced team who has worked on aerospace product development in the past, and familiarity with the process and standards required.”
If it’s WATER, we are entrenched. My family legacy sea-fared, mixed, rowed, and flushed ideas to market over four generations. Now at one hundred, the beach cabin in these photos is filled with the stories of success, tough luck, and perseverance. It is a place for the next generation to respect, reflect, and enjoy the silent wakening of water and happy whales.
I worked for Norwest as a manufacturer’s rep for over 35 years. Norwest was known for introducing innovative products to the Boeing Company. My early years in aerospace were more of an indoctrination into aircraft interiors repair and product certification, rather than sales and marketing. This experience taught me much about product re-work and the grueling task of testing, and what is required for flight certification. It also gave me a real insight into how Boeing valued helping and working with suppliers and airlines to meet schedule, and the buy-in for everyone involved in the process.
One of many Norwest successes for commercial airplanes was the vacuum flush toilet. It was conceived on a stack of bar napkins by my father Charlie Nelson, with Larry Ashton and Bjorn Kristoffersen. Convincing Boeing management to fund this project on the Boeing 767 was more than challenging, but engineering won and the overall benefits to the airlines were dramatic. Their invention became the standard way to “flush” on commercial aircraft.
In the aerospace business, the barriers to entry are high — you need to have absolute engineering confidence in the technology and working concept. From there you can begin working on innovative design that gives you the best chance to pass high-level testing for certification. You then need to market and sell it, which is always challenging because change either needs to be competitively driven, or so desirable that the customer MUST have it.
The patience for understanding this cycle from concept to certification comes with experience, and that is why I feel Humbay is poised as the future for healthy cabin environments. Even more importantly is the positive impact Humbay will have on passengers and flight crews during flight. The evolution of the Humbay invention vaporizes water and produces DRY humidity that neutralizes viruses in spaces like aircraft cabins — a truly desirable benefit to potential customers. Our latest patent, refinements, and trade secrets bleed confidence to pivot in new directions to design a system meeting airworthy certification.
I love watching the history channel and can certainly relate to inventor failure, relentless problem solving, and the deep-breath discovery. Humbay is thankful and we plan to tell our own story of success, carrying on the family tradition!
