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Israel has signed a deal to buy an American stretched version of the C-130J transport, modified for special operations (commando) missions. This means the aircraft is equipped with night vision gear, more radios, radar warning equipment and counter-measures for anti-aircraft missiles. India and the U.S. are also buying this special operations model. Two years ago, Israel sought to buy nine of the latest model of the C-130, the C-130J. These would cost about $200 million each, and Israel eventually found they could not afford all of them right now. Israel began using the C-130 in 1971, and most of its...

Although the United States has signed (last July) an agreement with Russia that allows 4,500 air transports a year to cross Russian territory on their way to Afghanistan, the route is only being used at the rate of about 700 flights a year. Why isn't the full capacity being used? Partly because of a squabble among Russian bureaucrats. Although the agreement waived transit fees, Russian aviation officials insisted some kind of fee had to be paid. It took months to sort that out. And there are still issues with some Russian ministries over how the flights should proceed. But there...

Last month, a Russian Il-76 transport crashed after taking off from a Siberian airport. The aircraft had just unloaded a cargo. This accident was no surprise, in general, because of growing problems with the aging Il-76 fleet. For example, a month ago, all Il-76s were grounded because the engine fell off one of them while it was preparing to takeoff. All Russian Il-76s remained grounded until recently, when it was determined that the problem was not common to all Il-76s. The recent crash led to another mass grounding, and growing unease among the many foreign nations that use the Il-76.....

Norway's transport minister thinks it's downright silly that airline passengers no longer can take water bottles, perfume or other toiletry items on board flights. Liv Signe Navarsete, from the Center Party (SP), plans to petition European authorities to lift the ban on liquids that went into effect last year. "This ban is irritating for individual travelers and a major cost for society," Navarsete told newspaper Dagbladet on Friday. She thinks officials need to examine whether the benefits of the ban really outweigh the costs. The cabinet minister who's a member of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg's center-left government questioned whether the...

Less than three months after the World Trade Center collapsed, a Washington lawyer, Kenneth R. Feinberg, was handed a highly unusual job. In an effort to prop up the airline industry, Congress had passed the Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act. Along with loan guarantees, the new law called for a special fund to compensate victims of the 9/11 attacks. The amount of the compensation, and who qualified for it, would be decided by an all-powerful official known in legal language as a special master. Mr. Feinberg, a mediator best known for resolving the Agent Orange class-action suit, got...

...It is taken for granted that every time the economy sours Washington will infuse the industry with enough cash to see it through the next boom-bust cycle. This bailout culture is so routine that nobody bothers discussing the fact that this hole-to-nowhere comes courtesy of lawmakers who won't tackle the regulatory and tax problems that hobble the industry. ...Last year Arizona Senator John McCain considered reintroducing his proposal to amend the Railway Labor Act to allow best-offer binding arbitration, which would encourage serious negotiation. But Republicans deemed it too politically difficult. Congress missed a similar opportunity earlier this year with...