Airline security is something we must all face. Many engineers are making clever scanners and sniffers to check our luggage. But Daedalus wants to reduce the amount of stuff we take in the first place. One proposed scheme reduces the nonsense of 'duty free' purchases. Payment at the departure airport leads to delivery at the destination. Airlines no longer have to carry (and scan) a vast amount of impure alcohol in 'duty free' flight bags. So Daedalus is extending this idea. DREADCO security guards are now examining the bulk luggage to spot common objects that can easily be specified and replicated at the other end.

The main problem is clothing. Casually dressed flyers often carry a smart suit or outfit in their luggage. In principle, the details could be faxed to the other end. The clothing industry has largely perfected the reduction of any suit to a set of numbers, but fashion sadly complicates the choice. Colour, pattern, cut and other subtle variables greatly multiply the items that would need to be held at the receiving airport. DREADCO does not want to take on the fashion industry, but he hopes to nudge it in a socially useful direction. Casual flightwear might be challenged: with luck a standard 'airline suit' would identify the frequent flier to fashionable advantage. A flight-resistant suit or outfit in some old 'wonder fibre' could be revived for this job. Casual flight-creased clothes might become fashionable themselves, but Daedalus admits this is out of his hands.

Another item studied by the security guards is the laptop computer. Many flyers would be glad not to carry this heavy and expensive toy. Even the most ardent key-basher is unlikely to fill a memory insert during a flight. With a standard aircraft computer (including a power supply, like the standard audio system), patrons could insert their memory device for the flight, do their work, and rely on the digital environment at the other end. Indeed, the next generation of portable computers should be designed so that changeable memory can be divorced from keyboard, screen and such standard items. Laptop owners would be pleased to take a mere memory everywhere, and use it to update their machine when they get home.

Other items frequently carried include pens, paper, calculators, cosmetics and toiletries. A standard 'travel pack' could be provided at the destination airport. The saving on security, scanners, and needless carriage should reduce the unavoidable costs of air travel.