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A device has been created that can scan entire planes for contraband, bombs and weapons.

The mobile X-ray scanner, heralded as the world's first 'airplane scanner', sweeps down a plane and can detect various objects inside.

While the radiation emitted by the scanner is not safe yet for humans to be in the plane when it is operated, the company behind it thinks it could become a vital tool in aircraft safety.

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Romanian company MB Telecom has revealed the Roboscan 2M Aeria. It uses a cone of radiation to sweep across planes (shown) and look inside. The device is accurate enough to find a filament in a light bulb. But the radiation it emits is not safe for passengers yet

The Roboscan 2M Aeria is being developed by Romanian company MB Telecom (MBT).

It costs €3 million (£2.1 million, $3.2 million), reported The Times, and is apparently already being used to check trucks at borders in Eastern Europe, where it has helped seize 76,000 packs of illegal cigarettes.

On its website, MBT says the Aeria is 'the very first solution for aircraft security inspection.'

It can scan planes from small private jets to medium-sized commercial airplanes.

The company notes that, while passengers and their luggage are thoroughly inspected at airports, there is no such inspection process for jets arriving at small private airports with low security.

But with their device, the company says this 'gap' in aviation security can be plugged, and it can scan an entire plane in about 20 minutes.

Plane to see! The Roboscan 2M Aeria can scan whole aircrafts

The device can be used to detect weapons (shown) and other contraband in small or medium-sized jets that land at low-security airports

An operator working inside the truck can look inside the entirety of a plane, although currently under regulations some areas of the plane - such as the fuselage and wings - are restricted

There are four main components that allow an aircraft to be scanned.

The first is the operating truck, from which an operator can use the system and look inside the plane.

Attached to this is a robotic arm with an X-ray generator at the end.

The plane is then pulled forwards by a battery-operated tug over a wide detection module. By firing X-rays out of the arm, a cone of radiation sweeps over the plane.

The operator inside the truck is then given live images of the interior of the plane, and is able to scan its entirety for hidden items.

It is apparently so accurate that it could pick out keys on a seat or even a filament in a light bulb.

One issue, though, is that aircraft operators do not authorities to inspect the whole plane - areas of the fuselage and the wings are off limits, even though Roboscan can examine these areas.

'You cannot touch it, but you can scan it,' said Radu Tudor of MBT at the Counter Terror Expo in London this week. 

There are four main components that allow an aircraft to be scanned. The first is the operating truck (shown), from which an operator can use the system and look inside the plane

The plane is pulled forwards through the scanner by a battery-operated tug (shown) over a wide detection module. By firing X-rays out of the arm, a cone of radiation sweeps over the plane