RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne. Flying can mean sitting next to someone who chats, snores or hogs the armrest - or a robot. In a first, a humanoid automaton took a seat on a flight from LA to Frankfurt. Athena the robot looks like a metal human but was designed to perform tasks too dangerous for humans. The German researchers who purchased the robot say a passenger seat was cheaper than shipping it in a box. And Athena kept on her red sneakers as she bypassed the metal detector. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.