Aircraft

The rebirth of commercial supersonic flight has kind of, sort of come to pass as Dawn Aerospace announces that its 16-ft (4.8-m) Mk-II Aurora rocket-powered aircraft broke the sound barrier with a speed of Mach 1.1 on November 12, 2024.

We've been following the development of Australia's AMSL Aero's longe-range, hydrogen-powered Vertiia eVTOL for some time and now the box-winged tilt-rotor aircraft has completed its first free flight after over a year of 50 tethered tests.

Small aircraft manufacturer BETA Technologies has rolled the first electric plane off its fully scaled production line in Vermont. You can go along for the ride with this milestone-setting aircraft in a slick new video from the makers.

Astro Mechanica is an aerospace startup developing what it calls a "turboelectric adaptive engine", efficient for both subsonic and supersonic flight ... using electric car motor technology. And the suck-squeeze-bang-blow works.

We've been following Electra's ultra-short takeoff and landing electric hybrid prototype for some time and now the company has unveiled its EL9 Ultra Short production model that is designed to carry nine passengers at 175 knots (201 mph, 324 km/h).

China's EHang has completed what it calls the world's first solid-state battery test in a pilotless passenger-carrying eVTOL. With nearly 500 Wh/kg of energy density, the solid-state battery contributes to a serious boost in endurance.

Another example of how the bleeding edge aerospace sector is going through a massive shakeup has surfaced as civilian supersonic startup Exosonic has announced that it is going out of business after being unable to raise needed funding.

Aerospace startup Natilus is taking on the biggest players in civil aviation, unveiling its plans to build its Horizon Blended Wing Body (BWB) passenger/cargo liner that can carry 200 passengers from New York to London with 50% lower emissions.

In a feat that can only be described as legendary, and after many months and a catastrophic setback, Polaris Spaceplanes has finally accomplished something that's never been done before: lit the fuse of an aerospike rocket in flight.

Austrian flying vehicle tech company CycloTech is building an eVTOL demonstrator to showcase its CycloRotor-powered propulsion system for electric flight. The firm is hoping to commence test flights in early 2025.

It was just a year ago that the Switchblade flying car made its first flight, moving one step closer to real-world usage. Based on what was learned in that flight, its makers have now unveiled the design for the production version of the vehicle.

A major player in aerospace innovation has bitten the dust. Reaction Engines, a developer of hypersonic engine technology since 1989, has gone into administration and its closure is having an impact on the hypersonic weapons program of Britain and others.

Seven years after its first test flight, German electric air taxi manufacturer Lilium has run out of funding, and filed for insolvency for its two subsidiaries. It failed to raise an emergency injection of $54 million to continue its operations.

In a major jump into the era of eVTOL air taxis and multicopter cargo drones, the US FAA has issued new regulations that introduce the first new aircraft category, called "power-lift" aircraft, since modern helicopters were introduced in the 1940s.

Making a virtue out of necessity, Airbus is joining forces with Toshiba to develop a super-efficient superconducting motor for aircraft that uses the liquid hydrogen that supplies the electricity to cool the propulsion and adjacent systems.