Western Aircraft has completed the first installation of the Component cabin purification system from Aviation Clean Air (ACA) on a Dassault Falcon 900, the Boise, Idaho-based MRO announced this week. “Since the COVID-19 issue arose, we have received a great deal of customer interest in the ACA Component,” said Western Aircraft's sales and marketing director Kerry Heiss. 

The device is an ionizer that neutralizes a variety of pathogens in aircraft cabin air and surfaces continuously. Mounted to an airplane’s existing environmental control system supply duct, it works electronically to create positive and negative ions from hydrogen and oxygen molecules in the water vapor present in the air that cluster around microparticles, gases, airborne mold spores, viruses, and bacteria.

When the system is on, pathogens on cabin surfaces and in the air are inactivated, according to ACA, which notes on its website that independent testing of bipolar ionization has been effective in killing eight different pathogens including C. difficile, staph, and norovirus. The company also acknowledged that no analytical testing has been done on the effects of bipolar ionization on Covid-19.

Western’s Heiss added installation of Component is simple and provides for minimal aircraft downtime. In addition to operating as a Dassault Falcon-authorized service center, Western is able to install Component on other business aircraft, including Gulfstream, Embraer, and Citation models.