Flight

The first PowerUp kit added an electric propeller to paper planes. Well, the latest version reportedly allows all sorts of things to fly.

​We've been reporting on David Mayman and Jetpack Aviation for some years now, and this weekend he was in Sydney with his roaring jet turbine JB-10 jetpack to take another stab at a flight he tried to perform 10 years ago. We were privileged to watch this stunning flight in person.

Boeing is lifting another suite of experimental technologies into the air as part of its EcoDemonstrator program. Traveling aboard this time around are 50 projects in all, including ones geared toward smart toilets and others toward improving passengers’ view outside the plane. ​

Unlike their larger, commercial airliner cousins, small private aircraft aren't required to use flight data recorders. As a result, many pilots don't bother with them, in order to save money. A new system could change that, though, by utilizing computer vision tech for a cheaper "black box."

LA’s Ampaire has put into the air what it says is the largest hybrid-propulsion plane to ever take flight, with plans to kick off commercial operations in the next couple of years. ​

​We've seen a few impressive drones now that can adapt themselves to different modes of transport. Equally so is a new quadcopter developed at Israel's Ben-Gurion University, which flies like a regular quadcopter but turns its propellor arms into wheels to keep moving once it hits the ground. ​

The potential for micro flying-robots in areas like search and rescue, agriculture and hazard detection is huge, but so are the hurdles. Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) have been working on these problems with their Bee+, drawing inspiration from the insect world.

Like the Wright Brothers, evolution didn’t get flight exactly right the first time. It takes experimentation to find the best design, and now palaeontologists have found one of nature’s quirky side projects – a strange dinosaur that was covered in feathers but had leathery bat-like wings.

On the timeline of the evolution of flight in birds, gliding seems like a logical first step. But new research suggests that some species could have made the jump straight to flapping flight without a gliding phase in the meantime, which could force a rewrite of our understanding of avian evolution.

​Whereas quadcopter drones simply have four rigid propeller-bearing arms, flying insects are able to adjust the angle of their wings according to the situation. Inspired by that fact, scientists have created a drone that can fold its arms while in flight, allowing for better performance.

​Five years ago, French aeronautical engineer Edwin Van Ruymbeke successfully crowdfunded his Bionic Bird – it's a remote-control model that flies by flapping its wings, just like a real bird. Now he's back, with the insect-inspired MetaFly.

RAF Typhoon Eurofighters have taken off for the first time on an active mission armed with the latest-generation Meteor air-to-air missiles that are capable of flying at over Mach 4 (2,967 mph, 4,775 km/h).