comes one hundred years, almost to the day, after the Wright brothers' famed flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903. This panoramic overview addresses virtually every facet of commercial aviation, domestic and international, but its most riveting chapters present a historical review of the genesis and evolution of transportation regulation and deregulation, exploring the causes and effects of both. In true tour de force fashion, the authors expore in depth: the emergence and refinement of labor and employment laws, and their specific adaptation to the airline industry; the development and maintenance of an adequately expansive airport and airway system, and the at-times volatile debate over their funding; the sustainable development of a national transportation system, including its air transport component, in a challenged environment; the still-vibrant regulation of airline safety; the ongoing struggle, greatly exacerbated by September 11, 2001, to develop, maintain and fund secure airline and airport operations at a level fully commensurate with the public and national interests and a realistic preservation of civil liberties; air carrier liability for passenger injury and death, cargo loss or damage, trespass and nuisance; products liability from the perspectives of both sellers and purchasers; the liability exposure of the government in its myriad of functions related to aviation; the body of public international air law established by treaties, the International Civil Aviation Organization, and bilateral air transport agreements; and the private international air law developed by the Warsw Convention and its progeny, regarding the liability of international airlines and their agents, leading to the recent entry into force of the Montreal Convention of 1999. -- forward by James E. Landry

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