EDGEWOOD, Md. -- An Edgewood company is looking to make air travel safe from terrorism with cutting edge technology -- and there's a new push for funding the project.

WBAL-TV 11 NEWS reporter John Sherman went to Edgewood Monday to take a look at the new type of airport security screening.

"What it catches is explosives, a number of explosives," said Rick Thomas, with Smith's Detection.

Edgewood-based Smith's Detection designs the technology called the Sentinel Two. The technology involves an air-locked chamber that people walk through. Air is then blown through the person's clothes, which is sucked back into the machine to be analyzed, Sherman reported.

Thomas described how it works.

"A small puff of air is blown up at an individual to dislodge explosive particles, the particles are then collected and they go into an analyzer," he said.

Though the system is in the early stages of production, it's already in use at places like London's Heathrow Airport, Sherman reported. U.S. Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-District 2, toured the plant Monday to see the company in order to pitch it on Capitol Hill.

"We need to put more resources and more effort into getting technology that will protect our citizens," Ruppersberger said.

"Congressman Ruppersberger was here to talk about the issues of funding for homeland security," Thomas said.

Smith's Detection also makes other security devices that are currently used in many airports, Sherman reported. They also make a device that's used by the military to detect chemical weapons on the battlefield.

But the push during Ruppersberger's tour was an attempt to obtain full funding by the Transportation Security Administration for the Sentinel Two.

"They are actually considered one of the top homeland security companies in the world," Ruppersberger said.

The technology is already under production and TSA funding would help aid in those costs as well as distribution costs.

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