Emerging Technologies

Embraer spins off an independent company to accelerate its entry into urban air transportation.

Lilium picks Orlando; UK’s future of flight; multiaircraft autonomy; GoFly adapts to COVID; VerdeGo tests hybrid; Sony plans drones.

NASA and the FAA are cooperating to understand performance characteristics and operating requirements for urban air taxis.

NASA is looking at ways to enable industry to collaborate in maturing technologies for the next narrowbody airliner.

Ask the Editors: The S4 is an airplane that is also capable of vertical flight and therefore does not operate like a helicopter.

NASA is polling industry on technologies that have a high probability of being used in new single-aisle airliners entering service in 2030-35.

NASA’s moral autonomy; Beyond FAA’s UAS IPP; X-57’s lift props; VoltAero picks Sonaca; Hill’s in-house turboshaft; Canadian AAM.

After 15 years of development, Karem’s Optimum Speed Tilt Rotor shows its potential on the test stand.

Seven years after the demise of the X-51 program, the Pentagon puts Boeing back in the running for hypersonic cruise missile programs.

Cellular operators are baulking at the cost of establishing 5G networks. Could masts in the sky be an option?

Designers of urban air taxis are quick to correct anyone who calls their vehicles “flying cars,” as most are intended to fly over cities and not drive on the streets.

Electric aircraft developer Bye Aerospace has attracted another investor, South Korean startup Aerospace9.

Ongoing concern over the robustness of the GPS system in the U.S. undergirds development of alternative navigation systems for aviation.

Falcon 9 engine issue delays first U.S.-launched ISS crew flight since the space shuttle.

Tecnam’s electric; China unmanned test sites; Canadian AAM; Volocopter’s UAM backbone; Beam solar charger; Loon stratospheric record

Bell is looking to technology from its Model 360 Invictus as a potential template for a medium-size single-engine utility platform.

An enlarged second stage would have two engines and more propellant. Much more payload space can be provided.

Pyka has FAA approval to begin trial operations at farms in California and Nevada.

Ask the Editors: There is room for both and overlap between both, and who will win where will play out over the next decade.

Stratospheric cell mast; Heaviside favors elegance; Pipistrel picks Honeywell; Volansi flies vaccines; Iris enables BVLOS.

Plans for major technology demonstrators to shape next generation of single-aisle airliner firming up in Europe and U.S.

Transonic Truss Braced Wing, electrified propulsion small-core turbofans and high-rate composites top NASA’s priorities

From Boom to Joby, aviation startups are turning to 3D printing to reduce time and cost required to field new products.

Aviation Week editors honored more than two dozen 2020 Laureate Awards winners from around the globe in a virtual event.

In a continuing effort to thwart potential drone incursions into Changi Airport (SIN) airspace, local authorities have deployed a military-grade anti-drone protection system during the lull in activity at the airport.