Mr. Smith is concerned. Traffic was snarled, so he is arriving 30 minutes later than he had hoped for the flight he booked through Swift Travel. Worse yet, he is flying for the first time out of Big City Airport, which houses a specially designed terminal for Swift Travel customers, and he isn't familiar with its security check-in procedures. If its procedures are as cumbersome and time consuming as those used at other major airports, he will surely miss his flight.

Airports and the U.S. government are putting more and more security measures in place to thwart terrorist acts. These measures have increased both costs for the airports and taxpayers and inconvenience for travelers. And an argument might be made that this inconvenience does little to increase security. Isn't a jumbled queue of passengers waiting to be screened just as tempting a target as a packed jumbo jet?

"Everyone is keen to introduce new technologies and procedures to protect against perceived security threats," says Tom Berry, program manager for the Future Vision and Transformation department for the MITRE Corporation's Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD). "The problem is that nobody is looking at these technologies and procedures from a passenger's point of view. By examining passenger and cargo flow through time and space, you can envision a system that's both more convenient for passengers and more secure."

MITRE believes that airport security procedures can enhance a passenger's travel experience, not detract from it. By envisioning innovations in information technology, airport security systems could be made not only less intrusive but more effective.

As Mr. Smith nears Parking Garage Green, a pleasant voice speaks from the dashboard display of the rental car Swift Travel had arranged for him. "Attention. Parking Garage Green is temporarily closed. Please proceed to Parking Garage Blue." Mr. Smith glances at Parking Garage Green as he passes, but sees nothing out of the ordinary. With a shrug, he drives past to Parking Garage Blue.

What Mr. Smith didn't see is a security guard standing over a suspicious package left by the entrance of Parking Garage Green. In response to the alert filed by the security guard, Swift Travel immediately flagged all of its customers approaching Parking Garage Green to proceed to the next garage.

Current airport security systems force the passenger through bottlenecks such as a single screening point. This procedure has several drawbacks: it inconveniences the passenger, it presents a terrorist with but one obstacle to clear, and, as mentioned above, may inadvertently provide a terrorist with an even more inviting target than his original intent.

What if an airport security system didn't force a passenger to follow its path but instead followed the path of the passenger? And what if the system didn't just conduct one security check but instead conducted multiple security checks, each one building a new layer of confidence in the passenger's intent?

"No technology is infallible," explains Berry. "Facial recognition, name matching, bomb sniffing, fingerprinting—none of them is 100-percent effective. But if you combine a portfolio of technologies together in a security system that takes advantage of the passenger's flow through time and space, it may be possible to weave a much tighter, yet less obtrusive, security net."

As Mr. Smith pulls into Parking Garage Blue, the transponder in his rental car notifies Swift Travel of his arrival. Swift Travel tracks down the shuttle bus nearest to Parking Garage Blue and instructs the driver to pick up Mr. Smith. When Mr. Smith exits the garage, the shuttle bus is waiting for him.

As the bus makes its way to the terminal, Mr. Smith's ticket information is forwarded to his airline, which confirms Mr. Smith's flight information and notifies the gate to prepare his boarding pass.

The key to MITRE's airport security vision is information sharing. Government and industry for so long have been conditioned to view information as a proprietary product: Gather as much of it as you can and keep it as secret as possible. Likewise, consumers are cautioned to guard their personal information closely, lest it be abused by those who gain access to it.

"Naturally, properly protecting access to intelligence and personal data are paramount issues. Passengers don't want to feel like their movements are being observed and analyzed every moment they are in the airport. One strategy to deal with these issues is to provide something in return for passengers who voluntarily share access to their personal information," says Berry.

"Likewise, intelligence and security agencies want similar benefits for sharing their information. Our message is, 'There is value in connecting the information rather than protecting it.' Connect passenger information in a way that benefits both the passenger and the security providers. The higher the return for passengers, the more willing they will be to share the information needed for tighter security."

Swift Travel notifies the airport's baggage handling system that Mr. Smith is about to arrive at the terminal. When Mr. Smith steps off the bus, a baggage clerk is waiting outside the terminal to take his suitcase from him. After the clerk applies a tag to the suitcase, the bag is loaded onto a conveyor system that will scan and track the suitcase as it makes its way to the tarmac.

In environments where information is "stovepiped"—passed hierarchically through an organization while being kept from outside organizations—that information can serve only the needs of that one organization. This forces organizations to operate independently, duplicating efforts and using inconsistent or incompatible criteria for evaluation, even when the organizations are pursuing identical goals.

By connecting systems within and between organizations, resources can be devoted to employing the information rather than gathering it. Consumers also should be willing to share their information, if in exchange they receive tangible benefits such as convenience and savings.

"Executing a vision such as this is an enormous challenge," says Berry. "But we can already see it happening in the private sector in very small bits and pieces. Just look at how companies like Amazon or Google are drawing information from interactions with their customers and putting it together with external data sources. Over the long term, these companies and others will continue to provide value for customers by presenting them with the right information at the right time, in the right context and place.

"Our goal is first to present to sponsors—such as the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Transportation Security Administration—a similar vision of how to link together individual technologies and information. We want to engage them in a conversation about how transportation security can complement rather than dominate the travel experience. And then we'll offer them our expertise in research, modeling, and simulation to implement that vision."

Mr. Smith enters the airport and makes his way to the Swift Travel terminal. Along the way, he passes through standard terminals where long lines of travelers are queued at security checkpoints. To enter the Swift Travel terminal, Mr. Smith walks down a long corridor. As he does, he undergoes multiple security checks—biological, biometric, radiological—conducted unobtrusively by systems imbedded in the corridor.

MITRE outlined its vision in a presentation to the Air Traffic Control conference in Maastricht, Netherlands, last year. The presentation, titled "Requirements and Tradeoffs: Securing and Growing Aviation," was made by Amr ElSawy, General Manager of CAASD. The presentation included a video co-produced by Berry and his colleague Greg Nelson that depicted Mr. Smith's experience with the fictitious Swift Travel company.

ElSawy's presentation received an enthusiastic response. Caught between the terrifying possibilities of terrorist attacks and the burdensome realities of current airport security measures, airlines are watching both earnings and customer satisfaction drop. The Swift Travel model could be just the solution airports are searching for in order to keep their travelers both secure and satisfied.

His identity confirmed and his person deemed free of threat, Mr. Smith reaches his gate. As he approaches the boarding agent, his personal data assistant (PDA) sounds an alert. He has an instant message from Swift Travel. It is the first bad news of his trip: his flight has been cancelled due to a mechanical difficulty. Before Mr. Smith can throw up his hands in frustration, he receives a second message. He has been rebooked on an alternate flight. His PDA displays the new flight number, gate, and departure time. In response to the cancellation, Swift Travel has shifted its customers to alternate flights and forwarded them the details. Guided by the map of the terminal on his PDA, Mr. Smith arrives at his new gate well in time.

Having presented its vision to industry, MITRE is working closely with both industry and government to understand how the Swift Travel model could emerge. But MITRE will not be content to help just the aviation industry overcome its information bottlenecks. MITRE is championing a "system of systems" philosophy that could benefit all its sponsors in many ways.

His boarding pass information having been forwarded to the gate agent and his identity reconfirmed by the gate sensors, Mr. Smith is ushered straight aboard the plane. From the parking garage to his airplane seat, Mr. Smith barely broke stride in his passage through the airport. Taking his complimentary drink from the flight attendant, Mr. Smith raises a gratified toast to Swift Travel.

—by Chris Lockheardt

Related Information

Articles and News

• Envisioning the Future of Global Aviation in Maastricht

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• Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD)

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