Lufthansa Technik's Defender System

You don't need a Rottweiler to guard your airplane, just Lufthansa Technik's Defender system. It doesn't bark and it won't bite, but it will throw an electronic screen around your bizjet.

Defender is a video-based security system for unattended aircraft. It uses micro cameras, video processing, alarm handling and information technology to give security in potentially non-secure areas.

Four cameras fitted into a compact housing beneath the aircraft, plus a microwave radio, monitor programmable zones around the aircraft, and are linked to a mobile ground station (laptop). The system detects any intrusion using VideoMotion Detection (VMD) technology, triggering the video server to begin recording, and also coordinates user-defined response to intruders.

The images can be transmitted via conventional telephone links (landline or mobile) to anywhere in the world. The signal is transmitted using low-power microwave spread spectrum technology, so the possibility of jamming or otherwise disturbing communications is practically zero, claims the company.

In flight, the camera signals can be fed into the cabin entertainment system, giving passengers a panoramic view of the passing landscape.

By Mike Vines