EVERETT — Germophobes rejoice: The smarties at Boeing have developed self-cleaning bathrooms for airplanes.
Boeing Co. engineers and designers have created a prototype lavatory that blasts exposed surfaces with ultraviolet (UV) light, killing as much as 99.99 percent of germs in about three seconds, the company announced Thursday.
But don’t get thoughts about getting a tan while flying back from your skiing vacation. The powerful light would fire when no one is using the lav, and the system uses Far UV light, not UVA or UVB light used in tanning beds.
Prototype testing have shown the system is effective at cutting the ick-factor of being the 20th person to shuffle into an airplane bathroom during a long flight.
“We’re trying to alleviate the anxiety we all face when using a restroom that gets a workout during a flight,” said Jeanne Yu, Boeing Commercial Airplanes director of environmental performance, in the company’s press release.
The system “floods the touch surfaces like the toilet seat, sink and countertops with the UV light once a person exits the lavatory,” she said. “This sanitizing even helps eliminate odors.”
It even lifts and closes the toilet seat during the cleaning cycle. Boeing has filed a patent for the system.
Not to be outdone, Airbus Group is also developing similar technology, an executive for the European planemaker told Bloomberg.
Boeing’s prototype lavatory also includes hands-free technology for the faucet, soap dispenser, trash flap, hand dryer, and toilet lid and seat. Company engineers are working on a touchless door latch and a vacuum vent for the floor. (The number one rule of flying? Do not drop anything on the bathroom floor.)
The company’s Clean Lavatory is a finalist for a Crystal Cabin Award that will be announced April 5 at the Hamburg Aircraft Interiors Expo.
This technology could force me to change my number one rule of flying: Do not drop anything on the bathroom floor. Apparently, not all passengers share my concern. Maybe everyone has not looked down at the stew of unidentified liquids, dirt and toilet paper marinating on airplane lavatory floors during a long flight.
A few years, my wife and I sat next to the coach bathrooms during a 12-hour flight from Europe to the US. We were on a very full Boeing 777. I still shudder when I think of how many people we watched walk into the lavs in socks or barefoot. Oh, the humanity.
Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @dcatchpole.
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