Photo courtesy of Delbert and Sandy Groves

A polio-stricken Zambian woman uses a PET to transport herself and her child. A PET's cargo box can also be used to haul goods to market.

PET: Simple, easy and 'cute'

When Earl Miner designed the PET, he said he had several requirements:

v      It had to be simple enough that it could be easily manufac­tured by volunteers.

v      It had to made so that it could be operated by people who had never driven anything in their lives.

v      It had to be cute.

v      The people you're making it for don't have any money. So you have to design it for the people who support it. They have to respond to the design. It has to appeal to them" Mr. Miner said.

"People respond to the PET's simplicity, but they won't respond to 'ugly.' The PET is cute," he said. "I don't care if peo­ple think it's cute, as long as they know unconsciously that it is."

During his career Mr. Miner has designed saws, rooftop gar­den tillers, aircraft and a car wash that would scrub down a semi-truck in seven minutes. Of all the objects he has designed, he is most proud of the PET.

"Probably this PET is the most important thing I've ever done," he said. "And it's been keeping going. That's what I'm thrilled about, that the Lord would choose me for something like this."

—Susan Valley Barton