Aircraft

Boom Supersonic has completed the second test flight of its XB-1 supersonic demonstrator. On August 26, 2024, the prototype aircraft took off with Chief Test Pilot Tristan Brandenburg at the controls for a 15-minute flight at Mojave, California.

As hydrogen-powered vehicles continue to evolve, their use will become as niche as that of some current land-, sea-, and air-transportation methods, such as a new agreement that will see helicopters powered by the green fuel used for organ transport.

If you want to get high-speed internet to people in remote communities, why not beam it to them from a high-flying blimp-like aircraft? That's just one of the proposed purposes of the Sceye HAPS, which uses solar power to hover in the stratosphere.

Aerospace startup Dawn Aerospace has made a major advance in its push to create a highly reusable spaceplane. The latest test flight reached transonic speeds of Mach 0.92 and an altitude of 50,000 ft (15,000 m), or 3 times and 5 times, respectively, better than before.

Volocopter's plans to trial air taxi passenger flights from a floating platform on the River Seine during the Olympics have been thwarted by bureaucracy. However, the company has managed to kick off the eVTOL operational validation phase.

Range-leading eVTOL startup AutoFlight is about to get a major battery boost. The company has signed a collaborative agreement with CATL, the global battery leader that's launched some of the market's most energy-dense offerings.

Since we looked in on aerospace motor startup H3X in 2020, it's gotten its first round of motors out and signed contracts with major players like the US Air Force and NASA. Now it's working to launch bigger, badder megawatt-class machines.

Travelers could be making all-electric airline flights as soon as 2028. That's when Heart Aerospace's well-funded hybrid-drive ES-30 is planned to enter service, with a battery range of 200 km (124 miles) – or much farther in extended-range mode.

Conventional helicopters have a built-in speed limit, imposed by the physical limitations of their top-rotor lift systems. This fascinating Airbus project has found a way to break through that speed limit, and it's already done it in flight testing.

Swiss clean-energy aviation startup JEKTA has announced a partnership with fuel-cell powertrain developer ZeroAvia to extend the flight range and payload capacity of an upcoming electric amphibious passenger aircraft called the PHA-ZE 100.

Eve has unveiled its first full-sized prototype eVTOL (electric Vertical Take-off and Landing) air taxi today during the UK's 45th Farnborough Airshow. It's called the Eve Air Mobility.

Vertical Aerospace has pulled back the hanger doors on the second full-scale prototype of its four-passenger VX4 tilt-rotor eVTOL. The latest flavor has been given a significant power boost, and features proprietary batteries for the first time.

Austrian startup FlyNow is opening manufacturing facilities in Saudi Arabia, after the announcement that "thousands" of its coaxial twin-rotor helicopters will transport visitors at the upcoming World Expo in Riyadh.

The Mk-II Aurora suborbital spaceplane took to the skies last year for its maiden flight with a rocket engine. Now Dawn Aerospace has been give the official nod from New Zealand's Civil Aviation Authority to undertake test flights at unlimited speeds.

In a stunning validation of hydrogen's potential in aircraft, Joby Aviation has made an incredible 523-mile non-stop flight with its S4 eVTOL air taxi. That's more than triple its range on batteries, and an absolute landmark moment for clean aviation.