Aviation
The Airline Seat of the Future Will Clean Itself
According to Bloomberg report — The microbes lurking in airplane seats, hotbeds of infectious diseases, could soon be history.
Recaro Aircraft Seating GmbH, whose customers include Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., says it’s developing a seat infused with a disinfectant that destroys almost every germ on contact within seconds. It’s a response to studies that consistently show almost everything inside an aircraft cabin is festering with bugs.
Tomorrow’s airborne chairs — at least in business class — will be a digitized and customized living area, Hiller said by phone from Hong Kong. As well as being sanitized, Recaro’s seats will give massages and predict backaches. Eventually, they might even have their own bar.
“Individualization is really the key,” said Hiller, 45. The goal, he said, is to create “a hotel room in the sky.”
These business-class seats won’t just cleanse themselves, but will also somehow inform each incoming passenger how well it has done the job, Recaro Chief Executive Officer Mark Hiller said in an interview. The seats may debut within a year or two.
