Mark Huber is an aviation industry veteran who has worked in the flight training, aircraft sales, aircraft component, and airport development businesses. He has flight time in more than 50 different and diverse aircraft, including helicopters, aerobatic aircraft, vintage warbirds, jet fighters, business jets and turboprops, and transport-category aircraft. He has jumped out of several of these—on purpose—with a parachute. His defense and aviation journalism has been published in a variety of national and international periodicals.

Contributor

Mark Huber

New developments were announced concerning ionization and ultraviolet light technologies as they are applied to aircraft cabin cleaning and their potential to combat Covid-19.

 


Aviation Clean Air (ACA) has teamed with International Aero Engineering to create the portable, ground use only ionization purification system to disinfect interiors. Building on ACA’s airborne system, the portable unit purifies cabin air and surfaces by flooding the aircraft with electronically-created, pathogen-killing ions. The unit is powered via a standard 110-volt outlet. Once placed on an aircraft cabin floor, it can complete disinfection in less than two hours.&nbsp;

 


Laboratory tests recently conducted by Innovative Bioanalysis showed that the technology that powers both ACA’s airborne and ground units, needlepoint bipolar ionization (NPBI), successfully neutralizes the Covid-19 virus in conditions that replicate corporate and commercial aircraft interiors. Test results showed that neutralization began immediately and that up to 99.4 percent of the virus was “inactivated” within 30 minutes.

 


Unlike the ground unit, ACA’s airborne ionization purification system operates through an aircraft’s existing environmental control system whenever it is running. The purification system not only kills pathogens in the air and on surfaces but eliminates odors.&nbsp;

 


Developed by Global Plasma Solutions, the technology includes an electronic charge to create a high concentration of positive and negative ions that travel through the air and continuously seek out and attach to particles, which then become larger and can be eliminated from the air more rapidly. Positive and negative ions also have microbicidal effects on pathogens, ultimately reducing the infectivity of the virus.

 


Meanwhile, Dimer’s GermFalcon ultraviolet light (UV) aircraft sanitizing system will now be marketed to the aerospace segment by Honeywell as the Honeywell UV Cabin System. UV-C—200 to 280 nanometers (nm)—is proven to eliminate viruses from aircraft including those that cause coronavirus, ebola, and influenza.&nbsp;UVC has been used in hospitals, air and water filters, microbiology labs, and other applications. Most household lamps have between 500 and 700 nm of ultraviolet light.&nbsp;

 


The system is packed into a machine the size of a beverage cart and can treat an aircraft the size of a narrowbody airliner in less than 10 minutes for less than $10 per cleaning over the life of the system. The cart hosts a series of extendable UV light arms that sweep over cabin surfaces.&nbsp;

 


Honeywell notes that “medical studies have found UVC lights capable of reducing certain viruses and bacteria—including SARS CoV and MERS CoV—depending on UV dosage and proper application.”

 


Mike Madsen, Honeywell Aerospace president and CEO, said the company “is working on a range of solutions to help make passengers more comfortable about flying."

News and information on safety procedures and concerns.

New Cabin Tech Could Combat Covid-19

Honeywell to market UV cabin system. 

2024 Corporate Aviation Leadership Summit

Amy Wilder

News and issues relating to business, corporate and private aviation, primarily regarding turbine-engine-powered airplanes and helicopters. Subjects include aircraft, engines, maintenance, operations, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security, and training.

Altitude and course deviation, traffic proximity remain top categories

ACSF Data Shows Stable Bizav Risk Amid 2026 Pressures

Kerry Lynch

News and issues relating to international air transport and cargo carriers, national airlines and regional airlines, including aircraft, engines, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security and training.

Essential news and analysis on the defense aerospace business. Your trusted source for new and ongoing programs and requirements in military aircraft (manned and unmanned), engines, avionics, weapons and associated systems, including ground-based air defense.

Aircraft remained within separation guidance but neared each other after the presidential helicopter was unable to alert ATC

Faulty Comms Preceded Marine One/Envoy Close Call

Graham leaving agency within months of confirmation to another term

NTSB Vice Chair Michael Graham To Retire October 2

Stuart “Kipp” Lau

News about bills, laws, regulations and other governmental decisions affecting aviation and aerospace. Topics include FAA re-authorizations, taxes on fuel and aviation activities, environmental legislation, ICAO decisions, governmental mediation of labor conflicts and World Trade Organization disputes and decisions.

UK CAA concerned over rise in unstable approaches continuing to land

AINsight: Go-arounds Are a Normal and Expected Outcome

News about significant aircraft accidents and information from accident reports.

News and issues regarding all manner of civil and military rotorcraft and their powerplants, including helicopters, tilt rotors and unmanned air vehicles.

Helicopters more than twice as vulnerable to loss of visual reference accidents than airplanes

TSB: Rotorcraft More Prone To Loss-of-visual-reference Accidents

Charlotte Bailey

News about environmental issues relating to aircraft operations, including noise issues, emissisions, and regulations. See Fuel for biofuel.

News and issues relating to the aerospace industry that are related to the science, engineering and business of flight in space involving civil, industrial and military applications, and similar topics related to flight in the atmosphere of the Earth that are not covered more directly by other AINonline subject channels. In other words, both astronautical and aeronautical subjects, except for those aeronautical topics that are specifically covered elsewhere on this website.

More In Safety

ACSF Data Shows Stable Bizav Risk Amid 2026 Pressures

Altitude and course deviation, traffic proximity remain top categories

Faulty Comms Preceded Marine One/Envoy Close Call

Aircraft remained within separation guidance but neared each other after the presidential helicopter was unable to alert ATC

NTSB Vice Chair Michael Graham To Retire October 2

Graham leaving agency within months of confirmation to another term

AINsight: Go-arounds Are a Normal and Expected Outcome

UK CAA concerned over rise in unstable approaches continuing to land

TSB: Rotorcraft More Prone To Loss-of-visual-reference Accidents

Helicopters more than twice as vulnerable to loss of visual reference accidents than airplanes

EASA: Atmospheric Icing Insufficiently Understood

European air safety agency calls for more comprehensive studies into phenomenon

Embry-Riddle Introduces ‘Safer Skies’ Video Podcasts

First episode features three-time space shuttle veteranJanet Kavandi

Li-ion Thermal Runaways on the Rise in Aircraft Cabins

Numbers are rising and the risk of a serious incident is increasing

AIN Products

SUBSCRIPTIONS

RESOURCES

ABOUT AIN