Aircraft

We think we know what someone means when they call something "airplane-shaped," but real-world aircraft come in a surprising variety of forms. Two particular oddities were so far out on the bell curve that they were known as the "Flying Flapjacks."

French company Beyond Aero has released an updated design for the zero-emissions jet it's aiming to put into service by 2030, claiming it'll be considerably cheaper to run than conventional jets, while cutting cabin noise by half.

NASA has released a new image providing photographic evidence of Boom Supersonic's XB-1 prototype aircraft breaking the sound barrier. Captured on the second supersonic flight, it used a special imaging technique to record the historic event.

California startup Alef Aeronautics's electric car has released the 'first-ever video in history of a car driving and vertically taking off," on a closed-off California road. Alef's incredibly ambitious Model A is on pre-sale for $300,000.

You may think that if a species died out millions of years ago, its design would be too old to have any applications in our technology. A new analysis of pterosaur bones, however, suggests that they could inspire lighter, stronger aircraft materials.

A surprisingly simple tweak is making a venerable military transport aircraft more efficient. Literally gluing a few microvanes to the rear fuselage of a C-17 Globemaster III cargo plane can result in fuel savings in the tens of millions of dollars.

Boom Supersonic has gone, well, supersonic, its XB-1 prototype breaking the sound barrier today in the skies over the Mojave Air & Space Port in California. With Chief Test Pilot Tristan Brandenburg at the controls, it reached a speed of Mach 1.122.

The aviation industry has long been in pursuit of technological efficiency and sustainability. In a recent collaboration, Turbotech, Safran, and Air Liquide teamed up to validate the feasibility of using liquid hydrogen to power a turbine engine.

Some historic aircraft seem like a barrel for holding superlatives. One of these, the H-4 Hercules, goes one better because it's also at the center of one of the strangest stories involving possibly the 20th century's strangest man – Howard Hughes.

Looking like a miniature F-22 crossed with an equally small F-35B, SkyDefense's CobraJet is being marketed by the company as an AI-enabled eVTOL interceptor. It sports electric jets capable of speeds of over 200 mph (322 km/h) for taking out hostile drones.

NASA's X-59 aircraft has been marching toward a fest flight since it entered development in 2016 with the goal of bringing back commercial supersonic travel. Next, the agency will test jet-mounted shock-sensing cones to measure its "sonic thuds."

Sometimes you see a vintage plane that makes you scratch your head. Case in point is the US Air Force's X-29 of the 1980s that looks like a fighter with the wings stuck on backwards. Was this a daft mistake or a great leap forward? Let's have a look.