Aircraft

This wonderfully odd idea appears to have genuine potential to radically improve the power, speed, efficiency, payload capacity, range, endurance and ground footprint of a wide range of VTOL aircraft and drones. We've never seen anything quite like it.

After showing off with some extravagant runway wheelies last week, Alice, the "world's first all-electric commuter aircraft," lifted off overnight on a historic first flight. It's another major milestone toward zero-emissions medium-range air travel.

The recent turnabout in northeastern Ukraine shows that this is a war full of surprises. Not the least of these is that the conflict is shaping up as the first true drone war, giving new insights into the battlefield of the future.

Northrop Grumman and the US Air Force have announced that the B-21 Raider strategic heavy nuclear strike bomber will make its public debut at an invitation-only event in the first week of December at Northrop's Palmdale, California facility.

With NATO now open to supplying Ukraine with modern Western fighter planes like the Typhoon or the F-16, the question is, will this change the game or is it already too late? New Atlas takes a look at the Ukraine air war.

After 14 years of development, the Samson Switchblade – a fast, street-legal three-wheeler that converts at the touch of a button into a 200-mph airplane – has been approved for airworthiness by the FAA. The team is now preparing for flight tests.

Military variants of a civilian supersonic airliner are already on the cards after Northrop Grumman and Boom Supersonic signed an agreement at the Farnborough Air Show to develop special quick-reaction mission variants of Boom’s Overture aircraft.

The sixth generation of supersonic stealth fighter planes is on its way. The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has confirmed that the British-led Future Combat Air System initiative's Tempest fighter program will fly a combat air demonstrator by 2027.

It appears Virgin Galactic is looking to ramp up its commercial space services, placing orders for two more WhiteKnightTwo motherships from Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Services to support the air launch of Virgin's SpaceShipTwo spaceplane.

"Top Gun: Maverick" has quickly become a monumental success at the box office, but the film's producers couldn't have done it without leveraging the expertise of some of the world's foremost experts in all things aerospace from Lockheed Martin Skunk Works.

The Celera 500L is a truly remarkable design. Otto Aviation says its odd shape delivers an astonishing 59% reduction in drag, so it can cruise as fast as a small jet while using 80% less fuel. Now, Otto and ZeroAvia are giving it a clean powertrain.

Preparing for its first flight in 2023, Northrop Grumman has subjected a prototype of its B-21 Raider nuclear bomber to its first loads calibration test to verify the airframe's structural integrity as it moves through production to flight readiness.