Plane toilets are cramped, tiny and unavoidable -- and they're certainly not clean. But Boeing think they have a solution -- self-cleaning bathrooms.
Boeing's team of engineers and designers have developed a room with the ability to kill "99.99 percent of pathogens". It does so by combining touchless faucets, flushes and soap dispensers, which many of us are already familiar with, with a newer type of cleaning technology -- UV light.
According to Boeing, the UV light clears the small room of bacteria by "literally making them explode". "The UV light destroys all known microbes," said Jamie Childress, engineer at the company. "It matches the resonant frequency of the molecular bonds on the outside of the microbes." At which point they literally blow up.
The light also clears the room of odours in just three seconds, and ensures that every surface is cleaned by rapidly lifting and closing the toilet seat with an automatic mechanism. "We believe that using the 'far UV' is the key to making those surfaces cleaner," Childress said. "We position the lights throughout the lavatory so that it floods the touch surfaces like the toilet seat, sink, countertops, etc. with the UV light. This sanitising even eliminates odours from bacteria so that passengers can have a more pleasant experience."
Boeing will now be taking their bathroom concept to a competition which "honours innovative cabin designs", and has also filed a patent for the design.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
