Aircraft
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The basic shape of a passenger jet hasn’t really changed much for decades, but radical new shapes are inching closer to production. JetZero has announced that its beautiful blended-wing demonstrator has been FAA-approved to begin test flights.
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A West Texas company says it's found a remarkably simple way to slash air cargo costs as much as 65% – by having planes tow autonomous, cargo-carrying gliders behind them, big enough to double, or potentially triple their payload capacity.
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The US Air Force's XQ-67A Loyal Wingman combat drone has taken to the air for the first time. Built by General Atomics using automotive design techniques, it promises to be a cheaper, more flexible alternative to other UAVs.
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Hovering uncannily close to the waves, the Airfish-8 carves its way over water three times quicker than a boat, and 2.3 times more efficiently than an aircraft. Singapore's ST Engineering has announced its first orders, set to enter service in 2025.
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UFOs are having a renaissance lately, moving beyond the tinfoil-hatted crowd and into the realm of serious government investigation. Now a study has analyzed the geography of almost 100,000 sightings and found a few clues about how they cluster.
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Bell has released a video showing off its High-Speed Vertical Takeoff and Landing (HSVTOL) technology in action. The two-minute video shows a ground test of the nacelle system used to lift and land a VTOL X-plane before converting to jet flight.
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Aurora Flight Sciences has updated the design of its Liberty Lifter seaborne military heavy-lift transport – a highly efficient X-plane the company is developing for DARPA that achieves bulk lift by using wing-in-ground effect.
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Kobe University researchers have created a new "structural color ink," just 100-200 nanometers thick, that shows bright colors from wide viewing angles, without fading, while weighing less than half a gram per square meter (0.002 oz per square foot).
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In a bid to outdo the world speed record of the famous Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird spyplane, aerospace technology company Hermeus has completed ground testing of its first fully-integrated prototype vehicle called Quarterhorse Mark 0.
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The remarkable Seaglider promises a clean revolution in coastal transport; the convenience of an electric boat meets the speed and comfort of an aircraft, at unparalleled efficiency and range thanks to hydrofoils and the wing-in-ground effect.
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The Sirius Jet will fly up to 1,150 miles (1,851 km) at speeds up to 323 mph (520 km/h) on a clean liquid-hydrogen powertrain. It'll rise vertically off a pad thanks to a deflected vectored thrust system using 20 smallish electric ducted fans.
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DARPA has awarded a contract to Aurora Flight Sciences to build a full-scale aircraft called the X-65. It will test a new technology that replaces moving control surfaces with Active Flow Control (AFC) actuators that use jets of air for control.
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