Aircraft

Detroit's Airspace Experience Technologies has presented a full-scale prototype of its modular eVTOL aircraft platform, Sigma-6, an innovative airframe featuring swappable cargo and passenger pods and a functional skateboard robot to manage them.

Back in 2020, California-based startup Pyka launched an autonomous electric crop duster called the Pelican. Now the company has developed a cargo-carrying version that's billed as the world's largest autonomous electric cargo airplane.

With a US$425-million cash injection from NASA, Boeing will build and test a full-sized airliner based on its transonic truss-braced wing (TTBW) concept, using long, thin, strut-braced wings to add lift, reduce drag, and burn an impressive 30% less fuel.

These strangely-shaped twisted-toroid propellers look like a revolutionary (sorry) advance for the aviation and marine sectors. Radically quieter than traditional propellers in both air and water, they're also showing some huge efficiency gains.

Atlanta company Hermeus has its sights set on Mach 4 next year, to beat the Mach 3.3 benchmark set by the SR-71 Blackbird way back in 1976. Watch its Chimera hybrid engine nailing the switch between low-speed turbojet mode and hypersonic ramjet mode.

Britain's Arc Aero Systems, formerly Samad Aerospace, has put forth its vision for a "cost-effective, low-carbon solution to intercity travel." The hybrid Linx P9 promises to beat comparably sized helicopters on range, speed and operating cost.

Looking like a cross between a helicopter and a fixed-wing airplane, ASKA’s full-scale A5 eVTOL prototype is currently capable of both driving and flying. It stole the show at CES 2023, earlier this month.

DARPA has awarded Aurora Flight Sciences a phase 2 contract for its CRANE (Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors) program, following wind tunnel testing of a small-scale X-plane that uses compressed air bursts instead of control surfaces.

ZeroAvia's 19-seat Dornier 228 has taken its first test flight in the UK. It's a testbed for the company's clean aviation technology, using a zero-emissions hydrogen-electric powertrain that's slated for certification and commercial flights by 2025.

Like bladeless Dyson fans on steroids, Jetoptera's unique aircraft propulsion systems look like pure sci-fi. But they're beginning to demonstrate some fascinating capabilities in testing, and the next step will be a super-fast VTOL aircraft design.

The means of carriage needn't be the means of locomotion, says Node Air, and logistics for passengers and cargo will work better with detachable pods that can connect to air or ground vehicles as needed. It's teamed up with JetX to pursue its vision.

The Cavorite X5 is a fascinating eVTOL air taxi design, capable of splitting its wing covers apart to reveal its vertical lift fans, or closing them for high-speed, long-range cruise flight. Horizon has now started flight testing its prototype.

As the world's major powers continue their never-ending arms race into the hypersonic age, the US Air Force has set Leidos to work on a large air-breathing hypersonic drone capable of handling intelligence, recon, surveillance and strike missions.

Rolls-Royce says it's finished building the first demonstrator for its massive UltraFan engine, which will eventually hit the skies in airliners to be developed in the 2030s. Testing begins soon, with expectations of a 25% leap in efficiency.

Although gyroplanes were once bare-bones open-cockpit contraptions, we're seeing an increasing number of more deluxe, fully enclosed models. The Argon GTL 915 iS is one of the latest – and certainly one of the sharpest-looking – to hit the market.