Remember that airplanes and taxis have lots of shadowed places. Elevators less so, so I’d expect that to work better. Sticking a UV lamp in a plane’s ventilation (away from people) might help quite a bit, though.
People commonly reach into the little pockets behind seats for the in-flight magazines/barf bags/headphones/etc. People commonly secure things under their seats or in the luggage compartments. Armrests and seatbelts are commonly used for the stated purpose, and their geometry makes UV sterilization rather complicated. You may be underestimating the practical issues.
If you’re mainly concerned about viruses in the air, ventilation is probably a better solution (while the plane is unoccupied on the ground).
On Air vs Fomites: for this virus, a picture is emerging that fomites are basically irrelevant and air transmission via droplets or aerosols is what matters. But in general, there may be other pathogens where fomites are most important, e.g. norovirus and the like that spread via the fecal-oral route.
UV light can help with fomites but a full solution to fomite problems requires other changes, such as copper surfaces, better ways of making large amounts of very hygienic food, etc.
On ventilation: ventilation won’t eliminate droplets from sick people, it will dilute them somewhat over time. Airplanes already have ventilation via a compressor.
Far-UVC can zap droplets that are in the air before they get from person A to person B, which I think is the big win here.
Remember that airplanes and taxis have lots of shadowed places. Elevators less so, so I’d expect that to work better. Sticking a UV lamp in a plane’s ventilation (away from people) might help quite a bit, though.
The shadowed spaces probably don’t matter.
The volume of air you are trying to sterilize is the region around people’s heads, and to a lesser extent the surfaces that people touch a lot.
People commonly reach into the little pockets behind seats for the in-flight magazines/barf bags/headphones/etc. People commonly secure things under their seats or in the luggage compartments. Armrests and seatbelts are commonly used for the stated purpose, and their geometry makes UV sterilization rather complicated. You may be underestimating the practical issues.
If you’re mainly concerned about viruses in the air, ventilation is probably a better solution (while the plane is unoccupied on the ground).
On Air vs Fomites: for this virus, a picture is emerging that fomites are basically irrelevant and air transmission via droplets or aerosols is what matters. But in general, there may be other pathogens where fomites are most important, e.g. norovirus and the like that spread via the fecal-oral route.
UV light can help with fomites but a full solution to fomite problems requires other changes, such as copper surfaces, better ways of making large amounts of very hygienic food, etc.
On ventilation: ventilation won’t eliminate droplets from sick people, it will dilute them somewhat over time. Airplanes already have ventilation via a compressor.
Far-UVC can zap droplets that are in the air before they get from person A to person B, which I think is the big win here.
Strip-like sources of light and light sources beneath seats could partly solve this problem.