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Since the planned attack on planes about to embark on flights across the Atlantic from Heathrow in 2006, UK airports have been very strict when it comes to passengers carrying any liquids onboard flights. The rules currently say that no more than 100ml of any liquid can be carried onto planes. Anything such as baby milk and medicine has to be in a suitable container and checked beforehand. This has led to passengers having to either drink their liquids before they board, or dump them entirely. Either way it has led to hours of queuing and a security system in desperate need of a burst of speed.

Thank heavens technology has now caught up. Currently on trial at Manchester airport is the very latest in bag-scanning equipment, which is proving to possess the potential to reduce those queues by hours. For the last three months a new and improved X-ray machine has been buzzing all day and night. This new model, known as RTT Scanners, has been designed in Surrey by Rapiscan Systems and is a 3D version of the existing CT scanners. The image we all associate with these X-Ray scanners is now in three dimensions and has the capability to measure the exact weight of all the liquids that pass under it, telling the security staff exactly what substance is inside and whether it’s safe or not.

Each type of liquid comes up on the scanner as a different colour. It has allowed the staff at Manchester to check over five times as many bags per hour. Indeed the RTT can safely check 1800 bags in a single hour. However, with rumours that the authorities may be relaxing the current vigorous checking at some point in the future, they will have to be put in use across the UK as quickly as possible, if Rapiscan are going to recover their investment.