Flying economy is an exercise in indignity. You suffer the TSA, just to cram yourself into a tiny seat and sadly eat a $12 airport sandwich because no one serves food anymore. In a bid to make the experience at least a little better, Boeing is focusing on one part of the plane: the lavatory.
The American plane maker has spent the past year working on a prototype loo that uses ultraviolet light to zap 99.99 percent of germs your fellow flyers leave behind, in just three seconds. (In between flights, airline crews will still clean the WC, since there are some messes no amount of UV can tackle.)
The bathroom is just a prototype right now, and Boeing hasn’t made any final decisions on the hardware it will use. But it says airlines are interested, and that it's moving ahead with the development process. So even if that middle seat isn't about to get any bigger, at least your time on that other seat should be a bit more pleasant.
