Helicopters

The Airbus'VSR700 robotic helicopter has successfully completed sea tests under operational conditions, including fully autonomous take-offs and landings in strong gale force wind conditions, from a civilian ship's helicopter deck.

The first aircraft to fly on another planet has hit a new milestone. NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has recently clocked up its 50th flight, and achieved a new altitude record in the process.

Elbit America recently showed off its X-Sight Helmet Display (HMD) system to customers in Huntsville, Alabama to showcase how the bug-eyed visor can provide helicopter pilots tactical displays and 360-degree super-vision.

The US Air Force has awarded Boeing a US$285-million contract to build the first 13 MH-139A Grey Wolf helicopters to replace the venerable Bell UH-1N Huey multi-role helicopter fleet that guards America's land-based nuclear ballistic missiles.

Britain's Arc Aero Systems, formerly Samad Aerospace, has put forth its vision for a "cost-effective, low-carbon solution to intercity travel." The hybrid Linx P9 promises to beat comparably sized helicopters on range, speed and operating cost.

We've all seen footage of disaster victims being hoisted into helicopters, in litter-type stretchers. It's not a good thing if those litters start spinning or swaying, though, which is what the thrust-vectoring Vita Rescue System is designed to stop.

The line between crewed and uncrewed aircraft has blurred even more after a Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopter carried out a demonstration cargo mission as well as a medical "emergency rescue" entirely on its own without anyone aboard or human guidance.

Airbus has achieved a green aviation first as an H225 made the first-ever helicopter flight with both of its Safran Makila 2 engines running on 100 percent Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), which is usually derived from biomass.

On April 19, the one-year anniversary of its first flight, NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter visited and took images of the crash site of the protective aeroshell and parachute that helped deliver it and the Perseverance rover to the Red Planet.

Piasecki Aircraft is working on a full-size winged helicopter running HyPoint's air-cooled hydrogen fuel cell system – but to test that powertrain, it's converting an ultralight compound chopper for the world's first manned H2 helicopter flight.

The Lockheed Martin Sikorsky-Boeing SB>1 Defiant helicopter has completed its first long-endurance flight, with the revolutionary rotorcraft this week flying 700 nautical miles (810 miles or 1,300 km) from West Palm Beach, Florida, to Nashville, Tennessee.

DARPA's Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) program has taken another step forward, with a US Army UH-60A Black Hawk helicopter taking to the air over Fort Campbell, Kentucky on February 5 for a 30-minute autonomous flight with no one aboard.