While looking at HikingJim's Whisper-lite Universal reviews, I had a Q about transporting stoves as luggage on flights.
It's no problem on a charter plane in Alaska – the pilot will look at you oddly if you DON'T have a stove, fuel, firearms, pepper spray, etc.
1) But in the TSA world of "security theater" and traveling internationally, my understanding is that empty, used liquid-fuel containers are no longer allowed. If it smells of fuel, then they won't allow it. But what are your actual flying experiences, folks?
2) I assume a butane / propane stove head is allowed. Just buy your cannisters at your desination.
3) For a stove the like the MSR Whisper-lite Universal, you may at times use it with white gas or kerosene. But it seems like maybe you could fly with the stove head and tubing and cannister gas adaptor IF they didn't smell of the white gas you previously ran through it. I haven't tried this, but (the chemical engineer in me) strongly suspects you'd purge WG residue pretty efficiently by running it on butane for a while.
4) And, further, if you blow/suck !clean! air through the tubing (fish-tank bubbler, shop vac), you'd further reduce any petroleum odors that a screener might tweek on.
5) And, if store it in that warmest room in your house (like the closet with the water heater or some such), unwrapped, that would "bake out" more volatiles. Physicists have to do that with their vacuum systems to get the organics out.
