DENVER (AP) Airports around the country are hiring design consultants and trying to find the room and the money to install the bulky bomb-detection machines that must be in place by an end-of-the-year government deadline.

Although the deadline is months away, many industry officials and consultants believe that because of the logistical challenges, the costs and the possibility there will not be enough of the $1 million X-ray machines to go around the nation"s 453 commercial airports will have a hard time complying.

"It"s not humanly possible to get the equipment to run those bags through by the date they established," said Larry Salyers, general manager of Tri-State Airport near Huntington, W.Va.

The machines represent the second, more challenging phase in a government effort to tighten airport security.

On Jan. 18, airlines were ordered to begin screening all checked baggage for explosives, whether by hand searches, bomb detection machines, dogs or the matching of every piece of luggage to a passenger. Most airlines are meeting the requirement by matching bags, and few glitches have been reported. But by the end of the year, machines with 3-D medical X-ray technology must be used in all cases.

The largest of the machines are as big as a van nearly 16 feet long, 8 feet wide and 7 feet high and weigh 8 1/2 tons. And major airports will need dozens of them. The Los Angeles airport, for example, will have to accommodate at least 100 of the machines.