Plane

Aerospace company Stratolaunch has bold plans to launch swift and repeatable hypersonic flights from its massive Roc carrier aircraft, and has now taken an important step forward with these ambitions.

Israeli startup Eviation introduced its all electric aircraft in 2019 and has been edging toward its first flight ever since. It has this week taken an important step toward this milestone, breezing through some high-speed testing on the runway.

Engineers at the University of Houston have put forward a new solution to keep planes ice-free, developing an ice-shedding surface coating they say is 100 times stronger than other state-of-the-art materials.

An aviation company at the cutting edge of electrified air travel has taken a significant step forward, completing a first-of-a-kind test flight using a retrofitted seaplane to demonstrate the viability of its cleaner approach to short-haul flights.

The world's largest flying aircraft has reached record heights, with Stratolaunch today completing the seventh test flight of its gigantic Roc carrier plane and logging a record altitude for the huge aircraft in the process.

Airbus is moving ahead with its vision of aircraft with active wing control, working to mimic the behavior of bird flight with wings that adapt their shape on the fly to optimize aerodynamics and lower carbon footprints.

Engineers began putting Rolls-Royce's Power Generation System 1 through its paces a few weeks ago, and are already celebrating a notable milestone, with the system delivering more than a megawatt of power for the first time.

An aircraft developed by Rolls-Royce to smash the speed record for an all-electric plane reached a maximum speed of 623 km/h (387.4 mph) during its latest round of testing in the UK, which would make it the world's fastest electric vehicle of any kind.

One way scientists hope to prevent hypersonic aircraft from overheating is by having the propellant do double duty as a coolant, and newly developed 3D-printed catalysts could be the missing piece to this puzzle.

With a view to servicing regional routes, Swedish startup Heart Aerospace is developing an all-electric aircraft designed for short trips that simply aren't economically feasible for conventional planes – and United Airlines has got on board.

As it edges towards the first flights for its Alice aircraft, Eviation has finally unveiled what it says is the production version of its all-electric nine-seater, with the first test flights now slated for later in the year.

There are more than a few ifs, buts and maybes hanging over the development of Boom's Overture supersonic airliner, but if the company can jump through the necessary hoops United Airlines will be ready to grab a slice of the action.