The FlightBottle: Making the travel experience better
Why?
If you have ever been on an international flight, you know that it is one of the most stressful trips of your life.
When anybody talks about a stressful flight, a reoccurring theme seems to occur: the security clearance. Many of these security requirements are unusual and unintuitive. For instance, one of the first security clearance that caused a little bit of turbulence coming to the US is my water bottle. Having a water bottle is allowed, but having liquid inside of it is not allowed. Another challenge that I faced with my international flights was handling all the carry on baggage. Everything was unorganized and difficult to carry around. Many of my friends who had international flights also agreed that the carry-on baggage is painful, but yet necessary. Thus, I decided to find the perfect medium: The FlightBottle. A water bottle where you can organize paper work and even use as a storage unit, while also using it for its original purpose: carrying water.
How?
After coming up with the idea, I brainstormed several difficulties that occur in the traveling process and how I can ease the pain through innovation. Therefore, I decided to ask my friends that went through the international traveling experience. Many of them agreed on two things: unorganized carry-on baggage, and difficulty accessing passport. Although it might seem simple, why would someone just not keep their passport in their pocket? A passport is an item that is extremely important especially for international student who are trying to travel to a foreign country for their studies. It is the only way that will allow you to enter the country and also your only form of identification. So, many people decide to keep it somewhere safe, and the most obvious option would be in a carry-on bag such as a laptop bag. I then decided to create a water bottle that can easily store you Passport, ID, and miscellaneous items too. I decided to create the model on Fusion360 due to its functionality. I then found the exact dimensions of passports, the average wallet size, and TSA restrictions on water bottles. This water bottle can hold 32 ounces of water, but we will not be using all of it obviously. It passes TSA regulations in terms of size, and now, you will have a place to put your passport without the fear of it falling from your pocket, and no more messy carry-on bags. Your essential items will be all organized into one area.
Results
FlightBottle is designed into two compartments that can be joined together or set apart: the top compartment and the bottom compartment(which are both closed off by a bottle cap). The top compartment is used for water storage, while the bottom compartment is used for physical storage. I have designed the perfect snug fit size for the passport and the average wallet. You will be able to pull and push these items from and to your bottle easily. An illustration of the compartments and water bottle is shown below.
The FlightBottle is easily adaptable. Do you just need it for the water storage? You can easily just used the top compartment and screw in the bottom water bottle cap! This design will help many people during flights to organize their items in more organized manner. The struggle of the carry-on baggage will minimized and the fear of losing items will go away.