A travel jacket has raised $9 million on Kickstarter

The Baubax jacket has 15 functions including a built in travel pillow

Crammed into cattle class, scrabbling for the terrible complimentary headphones, clutching a scratchy tissue-thin blanket for comfort: air travel can be a grim experience.

Which might explain why a piece of kit invented to make travelling a little less painful has become the most funded piece of clothing in crowdfunding history.

The Baubax jacket boasts 15 functions including a built-in neck pillow, eye mask, gloves, earphone holders and a blanket pocket for when travellers get on the flight and want to close their eyes for as long as possible.

It's also got pockets for a drink, iPad, portable charger, sunglasses and passport, plus a built in microfibre cloth and pen, for when travellers need to wake up and dust off.

If that sounds like the business, you’re not alone. With six hours before the end of the campaign, the project had 43,376 backers and had raised almost $9 million – well above the target of $20,000 the company were hoping for.

The jacket will retail between between $160-$200, the inventors say. The only way to get one now is to pledge money to the project.

The product is testament to the exasperation of frequent economy travellers. Plane manufacturers are coming up with increasingly outlandish ways to pack more passengers into planes, by shrinking leg room or making people face one another.