Rapid inspection of general aviation aircraft for security threats and contraband

In the US, inbound international general aviation flights need to be inspected daily. The objects of interest include explosives, weapons, currency, and contraband. An imaging system capable of seeing through the skin of the aircraft to identify suspicious items would considerably speed up the inspection process. For inspection of shipping containers, cars, trucks, and other vehicles, AS&E has fielded many hundreds of X-ray backscatter systems composed mostly of the Z Backscatter® Van and the Z Portal® system. Due to their complicated shapes, large variation in profiles and sizes, and particular operational settings, aircraft require a specialized type of scanner which has been developed by AS&E. Initial feasibility experiments have demonstrated that the X-ray backscatter method is very effective for detecting objects of interest inside aircraft of different types and sizes. Analysis of images illustrating the imaging tradeoffs is presented. In designing a product for this task the challenges are not limited to X-ray imaging. Due to operational issues, special considerations are needed for collision avoidance, zero-turn-radius, shape-following scanning, adaptive detection area, and video overlay. This paper details the requirements and tradeoffs involved in the system design, along with an overview of the prototype and its performance.