The Air Up There …

Savannah, Georgia-based Aviation Clean Air (ACA), a producer of aircraft air-filtration systems, has finalized an agreement with Swiss plane-maker Pilatus Aircraft Ltd. for installation of the former’s Ionization Purification System as a factory-approved OEM production option for new Pilatus PC-24 light business jets. The ACA system is approved, also, for retrofit installation.

ACA managing member Howard Hackney stated: “We are proud that Pilatus has chosen to include the ACA system as an option for new aircraft owners. Our system is the only proactive system that immediately improves interior air quality and neutralizes pathogens. Although our system has been installed on a variety of aircraft models for several years, the advent of COVID-19 brought the need to mitigate the spread of that virus and others into sharper focus. Our system is proven to do just that as well as providing a host of other benefits that ensure a safe and comfortable cabin environment.”

Extensive testing by independent laboratories in settings designed to replicate the conditions of corporate and commercial aircraft interiors has demonstrated ACA’s so-called NeedlePoint Bi-Polar Ionization (NPBI) technology—the salient aspect of the company’s filtration scheme—neutralizes 99.9-percent of airborne and surface pathogens. In addition to microorganisms, the NPBI process removes odors, dust, and pollen, sterilizes mold, neutralizes common industrial gasses, and reduces static-electricity.

Pilatus’s Business Aviation unit vice-president Ignaz Gretener remarked: “At Pilatus we are committed to providing the best-equipped, efficient, and comfortable aircraft. By introducing the option of the ACA system, we are elevating air quality inside the PC-24 and guaranteeing a pathogen-free environment for the most demanding customers.”

The ACA system is installed in host aircrafts’ environmental systems and functions automatically whenever subject system is running—which, in a pressurized aircraft, is anytime the aircraft is operated. The system provides constant decontamination of host aircrafts’ interiors, while producing neither ozone nor chemicals and requiring no maintenance. Plans for installation of the ACA system in additional Pilatus aircraft models are being developed.

FMI: www.aviationcleanair.com