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).
Continue Reading
A team of MIT engineers have flown what was long thought impossible – a heavier than air craft that needs no moving parts for achieving powered lift. The 5-lb (2.3-kg) does not use propellers, turbines, or fans, but relies on a silent stream of ionized air to maintain steady flight.
Continue Reading
Virgin Orbit's Cosmic Girl took to the skies over Southern California on November 18, 2018 carrying a 70-ft-long (21-m) rocket for the first time. The specially modified 747-400 aircraft with the LauncherOne booster under its port wing took off from Victorville, California on an 80-min test flight.
Continue Reading
Carried by the wind, dandelion seeds can travel enormous distances of more than a kilometer (0.6 miles). Now, researchers at The University of Edinburgh have discovered that this is thanks to a remarkable form of flight never before seen in nature.
Continue Reading
For 13 years now, a Dutch research team has been building autonomous flying robots inspired by the humble fruit fly. Now, with the DelFly Nimble, they've achieved their closest mimic yet, with an incredibly agile fly-bot capable of multi-axis hovering and even turning flips.
Continue Reading
A Singaporean company is resurrecting a post-WW2 German design to commercialize a beautiful reverse-delta ground effect vehicle as a high-speed, high-efficiency ferry for 6-8 passengers. The Airfish 8 hovers serenely between 2 and 23 feet over the water and hits speeds of almost 120 mph.
Continue Reading
Airbus' Perlan 2 glider is continuing to push the limits of engineless flight, hitting a succession of record altitudes throughout the last week, culminating in a unprecedented 76,000-ft (23,000-m) climb on Sunday.
Continue Reading
A lot has been made of the dangers of drones mixing with other aircraft, but one team of engineers is exploring how they can guard planes from threats rather than present new ones by developing drones that can shepherd birds away from flight paths like robotic aerial sheepdogs.
Continue Reading
Airbus' Zephyr program has claimed another record, with a production model unmanned solar-powered aircraft touching down after more than 25 days in the air. That voyage is the longest unmanned flight ever made, and was achieved on this particular vehicle's maiden voyage, no less.
Continue Reading
NASA has tested three new noise reduction technologies on a series of Acoustic Research Measurement (ARM) flights, and managed to cut airframe noise during landing by more than 70 percent.
Continue Reading
See the stories that matter in your inbox every morning