By Paul Bertorelli

The good news about airplane theft is that it’s trending sharply downward. The better news is that there are more products than ever to deter theft and, in our view, all of them seem to work as claimed. It’s simply a matter of picking the lightest, most cost-effective design. Whether you really need an anti-theft device is debatable, given the relatively low risk. On the other hand, if you fly outside the U.S.—especially to Mexico, the Caribbean or the Bahamas, it makes sense to secure the aircraft more thoroughly than by simply locking it and tying it down. All of the products reviewed here will help.…