Ordinarily, wheelchair users have to check their existing wheelchair as baggage, hoping it doesn't get lost or damaged along the way.

They then use a smaller airport wheelchair to get onto the plane and over to their assigned seat. Depending on the mobility of the individual, they may subsequently have to be lifted out of that wheelchair and placed in the seat, with the whole process being repeated in reverse when the plane reaches its destination.

Obviously, things would be a lot easier if such passengers could just stay in their own wheelchair from start to finish. British accessibility consortium Air4All has designed a new type of airliner seat with that consideration in mind, and it's now being developed for real-world use in partnership with Atlanta-based Delta Flight Products (a subsidiary of Delta Airlines).