Airline passengers can now be flush with joy

Passengers would generally agree that next to bawling babies, roaring toilets are the most annoying feature of flights. There is not much that can be done about the former except, perhaps, to provide nearby passengers with noise-cancelling earphones. A separate, soundproofed area for families travelling with babies is not likely to be introduced by any airline, unfortunately. But given its sheer nuisance value, it is amazing that it has taken so long for someone to find a remedy for the thunderous vacuum lavatories common to all airplanes. After all, they are the one airline facility that has no separate standards for first, business and economy class users, after all. Which is why, if true, the researchers in the US who have recently claimed to have invented an airline toilet that is 50% quieter than the current ones using simple physics and engineering, deserve a noble peace prize.

Focusing on the three flush cycle valve conditions, they put in additional piping and adjusted the angles to reduce noise significantly at every stage. And they say existing loos can be retrofitted. That, of course, begs the question, why no one thought of it in the last 25 years. The downside, however, is that less terrifying toilets could tempt more people to use them during flights, adding to the discomfort of those seated in adjacent areas.