Interesting Airplanes

Textron subsidiary Pipistrel Aircraft flew the first piloted liquid hydrogen-powered electric aircraft last Friday. The HEAVEN project HY4 demonstrator took off from Maribor, Slovenia, with two pilots onboard and “demonstrated safe and efficient operation throughout multiple flight tests,” the company said. The hydrogen is used by a fuel cell that creates electricity for the electric […]

A New Zealand company has flown a new amphibious aircraft that will likely benefit from the new MOSAIC rules when they come into force. The Vickers WAVE uses the Rotax 916 engine with a constant speed prop to power what looks like a bulked-up ICON A5 and has numbers to match. The company says the […]

Boeing has chosen an old McDonnell-Douglas airliner as the test bed for the Transonic Truss Braced Wing that it hopes will eventually lift a new-generation passenger aircraft toward sustainability. NASA has contracted Boeing to build a Sustainable Flight Demonstrator and key to the design is a set of long, thin wings that are braced by […]

A Florida company is hoping to build a modernized version of the Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat, an aircraft developed almost 90 years ago and most famously used to hunt Nazi U-boats in the Second World War. Catalina Aircraft has announced it plans to build a turboprop amphib flying boat using the “same design principles” […]

China is charging ahead with an electric aircraft program and it may have a leg up on the competition because of an emerging battery design. Although they haven’t come up with a production model, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., a huge EV battery maker, claims to have been working on a solid state battery that […]

Less than two months after the FAA issued an AD that grounded the flyable B-17s in the U.S., at least one of them is back in the air and thrilling warbird fans in southern British Columbia. The Airbase Arizona Museum’s Sentimental Journey is taking paying customers for rides in Penticton, B.C., this week after a […]

Transport Canada has signed a one-year contract with an autonomous aircraft startup to provide pilotless cargo service to remote northern communities using a light aircraft. Ribbit Airlines founder Jeremy Yang told CTV News the Ontario-based company has developed software and hardware that will enable the autonomous missions to operate on a schedule with minimal human […]

A jetpack pilot may have created a new accident category in Austria on Sunday by crashing his rig in front of thousands of race car fans. The unidentified man was undoubtedly bruised but not seriously hurt when he tumbled out of control to the asphalt before an F1 sprint race at the Red Bull Ring […]

NASA says electric aircraft technology isn’t ready for prime time and its much-hyped X-57 Maxwell test aircraft will never fly. The $87 million program (including $47 million in cost overruns) will wind up at the end of this year, and the knowledge gained by trying to get the plane into the air will be available […]

Diamond Aircraft flew its DART-750 military trainer test article for the first time on June 12 and, as expected, all went well. The longish thin-winged hot rod sports a 750-horsepower Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-25C and is billed as an aerobatic trainer by the company. Diamond test pilots Soren Pedersen and Niko Daroussis flew the […]