Student airplane accessibility project named finalist for international award

Susan Sale and Mikayla Kaczmar, recent Virginia Tech industrial design graduates from the College of Architecture, Arts, and Design, will travel to Hamburg, Germany, this week to represent their team from the Calhoun Honors Discovery Program and the United States in the university division of Hamburg Aviation’s Crystal Cabin Awards.

The award recognizes exceptional aircraft cabin products and concepts that elevate the passenger’s experience. For passengers who use a wheelchair, Virginia Tech’s project could be life changing.

Chairs in the Air is a collaboration between Virginia Tech’s student team, Boeing, All Wheels Up, and Collins Aerospace. The team’s Wheelchair Space and Securement System concept would allow passengers with limited mobility to sit securely in their own wheelchairs during flight, reducing the risk of injury and protecting their chairs from damage during stowing.

“Our design is pretty simple,” said Kaczmar. “It’s a retrofittable pallet design you put right into an aircraft that involves three economy class chairs. All three chairs fold up, you can wheel the chair into a built-in securement system that locks the wheelchair into place, and the outside chair can fold back down to allow for a passenger or mobility helper to sit.”

“The general concept of the design is that a wheelchair user can remain in their personal wheelchair for the duration of their flight — from booking to boarding to beyond,” said Sale.

Keeping a wheelchair with its passenger protects both the person and the essential device. Wheelchairs are costly to fix, and if damage is extensive or the stowed chair is sent to the wrong location, the person will not be mobile when they reach the destination.   

For travelers with neuromuscular diseases, being separated from their chairs for extended time can be life threatening. Sale recalls two wheelchair-on-airplane deaths when team members started their project. Existing airplane seats don’t include the harnesses and other safey gear that may be essential for passengers who use wheelchairs, so another traveler must be there to hold the passenger’s body up during take-off, turbulence, and landing.

“This is a really big issue for wheelchair users that they have to be separated from their chairs when they fly,” said Sale. “It’s dangerous and painful, not to mention undignified for them to be moved around the aircraft. It’s not how we should be treating people.”

Kaczmar and Sale pioneered this project for the past two years, conducting research with industry partners and listening to stories from many wheelchair users. However, the idea for a team to address airplane accessibility came from Juliana Iacono during her first year at Virginia Tech.

Iacono’s family, who are avid travelers, have been flying with her wheelchair-dependent brother for many years. As he got older, navigating airplanes became more difficult. Based on these experiences, Iacono developed a passon for accessible air travel. She presented the problem with aircraft accessibility to a cohort of students to see if others would be interested in forming a team. Shortly after, Chairs in the Air came to fruition.

“I gave them a lot of insight in meetings that influenced design ideas, helping them also think about the person who is traveling with the person in a chair and what the full experience is on the plane from beginning to end,” said Iacono.

Now in her third year as an industrial design major and a member of the Chairs in the Air team, Iacono is thrilled to see the project come full circle.

“As product designers, it’s rewarding to be able to help create products and make changes that hopefully make the world a better place and make people’s lives easier,” said Iacono.

Ellen Braaten, assistant professor emerita in the School of Architecture, has worked closely with team members for the past two years, using her electric wheelchair to test out prototypes team members created and to help them understand how difficult air travel is in a chair. For Braaten, airlines implementing this system would mean she could fly for the first time in decades.

“I am a polio survivor from 1947. I walked on crutches for 50 years, flew all over the world, and when I had to get into a wheelchair, that was no longer a possibility,” said Braaten, who added that air travel with a wheelchair became a demeaning process that involved being carried in on a gurney and dropped into a seat.

“These kids were so involved and so understanding,” said Braaten. “We could talk about the issues that I’m confronted with, and in the long run, it’s going to be good for everyone by allowing people to have the freedom that they need.”

Braaten is proud of the team’s accomplishments and adds that their recognition as a finalist in the Crystal Cabin Award makes her feel hope that one day she’ll be able to fly again, allowing her to visit her daughter more often.

On May 28, the winners will be announced in Hamburg, Germany. Supported by funding from the Virginia Tech Honors College and the School of Design, Sale and Kaczmar will be in attendance to present their project. They hope industry experts attending the event will be inspired to help make air travel more accessible.

The U.S. Department of Transportation announced a new rule in 2023 requiring airlines to make lavatories on new single-aisle aircraft large enough to permit a passenger with a disability and attendant. Both Sale and Kaczmar see potential for the legislature to continue working toward better accessibility.

“On the issue of improving accessibility on aircraft there’s still work to be done for it to be a legislative requirement, so I think it’s good for people to keep this in mind in the future,” said Sale. “This is an issue that they can influence with their vote.”