• Briefly noted

    Feds get high marks for aviation security efforts…. Newest U.S. missile detection satellite may be failing… QinetIQ North America in $58 million TALON contract… Measuring effectiveness of emergency response

  • Germany reconsiders millimeter wave scanners

    Last month the European Parliament banned the use of millimeter wave scanner at European airports because the scanners’ sensitivity allow security personnel to see anatomically correct nude images of passengers; Germany wants to revisit the issue

  • Making facial recognition technology more effective

    Facial recognition technology holds the promise of identifying individuals in a crowd — and from distance; in real-world environments, however, the task becomes difficult, if not impossible, when the systems acquire poor facial images; NIST researchers offer a solution

  • TSA, American Airlines launch paperless boarding

    Paperless boarding pass will allow passengers to receive boarding passes electronically on their cell phones or PDAs

  • Flexible, flapping flying machines may be on the horizon

    Rigid wings and rotors have made aircraft very successful; nature, however, prefers flexible, flapping flying structures — just look at birds; indeed, the most efficient and acrobatic airfoils in nature are the flexible wings of the bat; Brown University researchers want to adopt the bat’s approach to flying for human use

  • Thruvision offers T-ray security scanner

    Terahertz radiation offer the promise of effective scanning of passengers without revealing anatomically correct images of their bodies

  • Briefly noted

    Pentagon to ask Obama for $581 billion budget for next fiscal year… Security requirements for private aircraft arriving and departing the United States

  • Disease-carrying travelers still a threat

    It is now eighteen months since the Andrew Speaker saga: Despite having drug-resistant tuberculosis, and although his name appeared on no-fly lists, Speaker managed to fly to Greece for his wedding, travel to Italy, and come back to the United States; GAO says some improvements have been made, but problems remain

  • UAV-based anti-missile defense appears doomed

    DHS’s Project Chloe envisioned a UAV-based system to defend commercial airlines against shoulder-fired missiles; Northrop Grumman tests show the system to be more complex, and costlier, than originally anticipated

  • U.K. passports costs rise by 39 percent to pay for biometrics

    Fingerprinting and facial scanning are costly procedures, and the Home Office attempts to recoup the cost of adding biometric data onto the document

  • New UAV can fly safely close to the ground

    UAVs are useful, but they cannot fly close to the ground because they cannot avoid hazards such as buildings, trees, and power cables; Carnegie Mellon researchers develop a UAV capable of “seeing” — and avoiding — such obstacles

  • Global Entry arrives in Atlanta

    U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents who pre-register for the program may use the Global Entry kiosk as an alternative to the regular passport control line

  • FAA issues final rule to increase airliner explosives survivability

    Aircraft manufacturers will have to ensure that cockpit doors can handle small arms fire or fragmentation devices, and that the flight deck and passenger compartment are protected from smoke, fumes, and noxious gases that could be released by an explosion

  • Briefly noted

    U.S. plans pilot program to bar unsafe imports… Restrictions on liquids coming to an end

  • EU votes down millimeter wave scanners

    Millimeter wave scanners offer a new level of security at airport checkpoints, but they also offer anatomically correct images of people’s private parts; EU votes against using them