Flight

The USAF's X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle Mission 5 has ended in a surprise pre-dawn landing after a record-breaking 780-day flight. Like the previous four missions, the exact purpose of the highly-classified unmanned spaceplane's flight was a secret, though the Air Force says that its general goals were "risk reduction, experimentation and concept of operations development for reusable space vehicle technologies," as well as the deployment of some small satellites.

Australian airline Qantas has just completed a test for the longest commercial flight in aviation history, covering the entire journey between New York and Sydney in one 19-hour marathon leg.

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.