Making Airplanes Safer from COVID-19 Spread.

• Position: SNEEZE GUARDS

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has reduced the number of people willing to fly due to safety concerns, and to ease fears, some airlines have opted to leave middle seats open to increase the amount of space for social distancing.

However, the findings of a study led by researchers from the University of New Mexico and Imperial College London suggest that nonporous plastic shields (often called "sneeze guards") installed between seats can prevent significant amounts of COVID-19 particles from being transmitted between passengers, thus allowing for fuller airplanes.

The study compared aerosol transmission in three situations: an airplane at full capacity, at reduced capacity (no middle seats), and at full capacity with sneeze guards between passengers. The team was able to conduct a series of simulations to model aerosol transport in a section of a Boeing 737 cabin using particle sizes similar to those emitted during speech, breathing, and coughing.

The researchers compared the velocity distribution of air through a section of the cabin, finding that there...