Screening of bottles

The use of liquid explosives or incendiaries concealed within common beverage bottles such as wines or spirits represents a threat to aviation security. Although liquid explosives and incendiaries may differ in colour and viscosity from alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverage they are nonetheless difficult to distinguish when concealed within coloured bottles. A reliable method of screening bottles is therefore highly desirable. DRA has investigated two techniques for use in this application: near infrared (NIR) and dielectric measurements. Both techniques are non-invasive and both are suitable for screening the contents of the bottle through glass or a number of other materials. Demonstrator equipments have been designed and built to operate with a wide variety of bottle shapes and sizes.