Aerospace

NASA’s Learn-To-Fly project holds out the prospect of a radically different approach to flight testing new aircraft, particularly future unconventional and unfamiliar configurations

Team developing V-280 Valor advanced tiltrotor for U.S. Army’s mid-2030s Future Vertical Lift rotorcraft is using a full-scale cockpit mock-up to define concepts for an advanced cockpit.

Software update, expected by late August, could mean full icing flight envelope clearance for the fleet, if the FAA approves.

Agreement calls for experimental facility and sample carriers to begin traveling to the International Space Station in early 2017.

Want to get airborne to avoid congestion? Or land and drive to get through bad weather? Or just have fun in the air and on the road? There are several options on the horizon.

Why German hypersonic researchers believe tapping into a tiny fraction of the global long-haul air passenger market could be a boost to low-cost access to space.

Electric propulsion for satellites is efficient, but low-thrust. An infrastructure of power-generation satellites in orbit would help speed the time it takes to change orbits

Unmanned aircraft in the news: hunting submarines in Canada; designing UAS to fight wildfires; forecasting weather with small UAVs; hybrid propulsion for small air vehicles

NASA demo will take first step towards deploying a system that can manage large-scale unmanned aircraft operations in low-altitude airspace.

NASA funds further study of a propulsion system that could dramatically reduce the time required to explore the outer reaches of the Solar System and beyond.

A higher cost of capital combined with sustained low fuel prices would make for a very interesting ride in the years ahead.

Online giants are on a mission to enable widespread use of small unmanned aircraft, with private sector organizations—rather than the FAA—managing airspace operations.

Autonomy, beyond-line-of-sight, multiple vehicles per pilot—Olaeris’s plans to deploy emergency-response UAS in cities across the U.S. goes well beyond what the FAA will allow, for now.

U.S. and Japanese researchers pursue different paths to introducing fuel cells into commercial aircraft propulsion systems.

Electric-aircraft challenge winner; NASA’s extreme-access flyers; blast-containing baggage container; TsAGI quiet supersonic idea.

Industry needs to work together to advance energy storage, conversion and transmission technology if electric-powered airliners are to become a reality, says Airbus CTO.

Mobile, practical and lethal lasers may be within reach for land and maritime use.

This is not your father’s aviation industry: video live-streaming and auto-editing platform Trace acquires small-UAV maker Draganfly Innovations to move into commercial and industrial markets.

Facebook using UAV to provide Internet service; inflatable space tower may enable SSTO; JAXA low-boom test a success; blood samples survive delivery by UAV; radar upgrade overcomes wind-farm interference

Tethered unmanned aircraft might prove to be an attractive alternative for use by first responders, newsgatherers, infrastructure monitors and disaster relief personnel.

Reaction Engines gets a boost from AFRL’s validation of its Sabre engine cycle concept.

Stratolauncher studies universal payload pod for world’s largest-wingspan aircraft.

A 1932 paper by famed German aerodynamicist Ludwig Prandtl inspires NASA Armstrong work on a tailless flying-wing aircraft that could eventually fly on Mars.

It’s been a busy week for unmanned-aircraft developments, including: naval debut for 3-D-printed UAV; Sony enters small-UAV services market; prescriptions arrive by UAV at free clinic; record claimed for swarming UAVs; unmanned wingman to the rescue; and the acoustic anti-drone sensor.

A 1932 paper by famed German aerodynamicist Ludwig Prandtl inspires NASA Armstrong work on a tailless flying-wing aircraft that could eventually fly on Mars