Aircraft

NASA's X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology (QueSST) experimental supersonic aircraft took to the skies for the first time on October 28, 2025 from Lockheed Martin's famously secret Skunk Works at the US Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California.

It seems like autonomous aircraft makers are indulging in a bit of oneupsmanship as Shield AI rolls out its X-BAT VTOL Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) that combines the ability to land and take off without a runway with long-range endurance.

Lockheed Martin subsidiary Sikorsky is blurring the line between helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft with its new Nomad family of Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS) that combine the versatility of a helicopter with the speed and endurance of a fixed-wing aircraft.

What has zero moving parts, yet can blast an aerial vehicle to velocities beyond Mach 5? The answer is the recently flight-tested Atmospheric Test of Launched Airbreathing System (ATLAS) powered by a new solid-fueled ramjet built by GE Aerospace.

A super-secret Lockheed Martin Skunk Works project is no longer a secret after the company revealed its Vectis Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) – an autonomous stealth fighter drone developed entirely in-house with company funds.

The US Air Force's second B-21 Raider nuclear bomber has taken to the skies for the first time. The second of a planned fleet of 100, the sixth-gen aircraft took off from Northrop Grumman's Palmdale, California facility on September 11 at 8:00 am.

In August, we saw Northrop Grumman unveil (slightly) its contender for the US Navy's F/A-XX competition. Now, Boeing is stepping in with a misty rendering of its entry for the sixth-gen carrier-based fighter plane to replace the aged F/A-18 Super Hornet.

Another air record has been (unofficially) broken as a prop-driven solar/electric aircraft reached the highest altitude yet for its type. On August 12, 2025, a modified Elektra One reached 31,237 feet (9,521 m) in the skies over Switzerland.

The US Navy's secretive F/A-XX sixth-generation fighter plane is a bit less secret after program competitor Northrop Grumman unveiled a new concept image of its version of the carrier-based warplane, giving us a few design clues.

The US Air Force celebrated the 70th anniversary of the famous U-2 Dragon Lady spy plane on July 31, 2025 – not with a cake but by setting new endurance records for the class of aircraft on the first long-duration flight of the U-2 in 11 years.

One of the world's first sixth-generation fighters has moved closer to its first flight, as BAE Systems unveils the prototype Combat Air Flying Demonstrator, now under construction for the Global Combat Air Programme by Britain, Italy, and Japan.

When is a laser weapon not a weapon? When it's the ASELSAN YILDIRIM 100 Directed Infrared Countermeasure (DIRCM) System that doesn't actually destroy incoming infrared missiles, but instead blinds them before they have a chance to lock on target.