Virgin Orbit's Cosmic Girl took to the skies over Southern California on November 18, 2018 carrying a 70-ft-long (21-m) rocket for the first time. The specially modified 747-400 aircraft with the LauncherOne booster under its port wing took off from Victorville, California on an 80-min test flight.
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Commercial supersonic flight has left the drawing board with Lockheed Martin announcing fabrication of the first part of the X-59 Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST) test aircraft has begun at the company's famous Skunk Works, setting the project on course for its maiden flight scheduled for 2021.
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After a decade of development Aurora Flight Sciences has finally unveiled Odysseus, its full-scale, solar-powered, autonomous aircraft designed to stay in the air for months. Odysseus is scheduled for its first test flight in 2019.
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It was just last year that we heard about the Plimp, a sort of plane/blimp/helicopter hybrid drone manufactured by Egan Airships. As was hinted at then, the Seattle-based company has now officially announced that it's working on a passenger-carrying variant known as the Model J.
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Describing a helicopter as "optionally piloted" might not do much to comfort those onboard, but this is the future DARPA is aiming for with its Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS).
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This crazy looking motorcycle-styled hoverbike appeared in early 2017 and we were skeptical the contraption would ever move beyond just an odd engineering curiosity. However, Hoversurf has revealed its hoverbikes are now ready for production and preorders are open, with delivery scheduled for 2019.
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There are no powered spinning propellers in nature. When evolution has found an advantage to producing thrust in a fluid, it has done it mainly by flapping things back and forth - and a new VTOL aircraft propulsion system aims to do the same with a series of flapping wings mounted in large ducts.
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After successfully completing low-speed taxi testing earlier this year, the giant Stratolaunch aircraft successfully hit a new milestone recently, reaching 90 mph during its latest stage of runway testing. The announcement comes days after co-founder of the company Paul Allen passed away.
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GE Aviation has given impetus to the revival of civilian supersonic flight by revealing a new family of engines designed to fly faster than the speed of sound. Called the Affinity, the new engine will be incorporated into Aerion AS2 supersonic business jet.
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German aviation startup Volocopter is one of the more active players in the nascent flying taxi scene. It is continuing to spread its wings, today announcing plans to set up shop in Singapore and kick off test flights next year.
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