Bomb-proof airline luggage bag passes tests

Fabric impregnated with chemicals that absorb the shock and prevent shrapnel from escaping make this an effective bomb-proof bag, now testing in Europe. 

A flexible, bomb-proof bag to hold air passengers' luggage is being tested and has yet to fail, according to a professor at Sheffield University in England. The Fly-Bag could replace the heavier, more expensive luggage containers that are used today to protect against in-flight explosive devices concealed in passengers' luggage.

The Fly-Bag is designed with layers of fabric coated and impregnated with shear thickening fluids (STFs). These increase their viscosity in response to impact, causing the fabric to stiffen as the fabric stretches. The different layers of fabrics prevent shrapnel from escaping the bag, and also contain the explosive gases and shock waves caused by a bomb.

A full-scale prototype of the bag has been tested with an explosive device as powerful as the bomb that brought down the Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988. That bomb contained less than half a kilo of explosives. So far, the bag has not failed. The researchers will continue to test it with increasingly powerful explosive devices until it does fail. At that time they will be able to say that the design is good up to that level.