Interesting Airplanes

After 53 years in production the 1,547th and last Boeing 747 left the assembly building in Everett, Washington, Tuesday evening. The last of its type is a cargo version that will be delivered to Atlas Air in 2023. The aircraft will undergo its shakedown flights in the next few weeks before heading to Portland for […]

Ampaire flew its hybrid electric Caravan for the first time Nov. 18, completing a 33-minute hop from Camarillo, California. According to Green Car Congress, the short flight was conducted to do initial checks on the propulsion system, which consists of a compression ignition engine coupled to a generator that charges a battery bank in a […]

The Antonov AN-2 that a Cuban defector used to fly to Florida in late October crashed near Opa Locka, Florida, on Monday, but it’s not clear who was at the controls. The two people on board were not injured when the big Soviet-era biplane landed in Everglades National Park about 15 miles west of Opa Locka […]

Ukraine aircraft manufacturer Antonov says it will likely cost about $500 million to return the An-225 to the skies. The only flying version of the cargo plane was destroyed during fighting in the early days of the Russian invasion. The plane was in an open-ended hangar at Hostomel Airport near Kyiv last February when Russian […]

The matriarch of the Air Force’s strategic nuclear fleet is getting some work done, and the result is smoother skin and curvier limbs. Air and Space Forces Magazine released an image of a 3-D rendering of what the next iteration of the 70-plus-year-old B-52 will likely look like and it’s definitely a softer image. “The […]

More than 30 Cessna 195s from all over North America attended the 51st Annual International Cessna 195 Convention held in Joliet, Illinois, from Sept. 7-11. This year’s convention marked the 75th anniversary of the vintage aircraft that owners say still holds its own against modern big singles in performance and comfort but with a heavy […]

The last Boeing 747 has rolled off the assembly line and is now being readied for service with cargo carrier Atlas Air. The 747-8F freighter was completed to the green stage on Oct. 4, but no formal announcement was made. A planespotter captured the historic event and AirAlive reported it. The revelation came as Atlas […]

A different sort of electric aircraft has been quietly undergoing flight tests—and sea trials—for a month and the company behind what it calls the seaglider is convinced it’s the future for regional flights in coastal areas. REGENT’s proof-of-concept ground effect aircraft is also a hydrofoil and boat. It taxis in boat mode, deploys the hydrofoils […]

Textron has teamed up with California-based ZeroAvia to develop a hydrogen-electric powered Caravan. The companies want to get an STC for the design, which will carry hydrogen in a wing tank to run ZeroAvia’s ZA600 powertrain in place of the PT6 that powers standard Caravans. The two companies said in a joint release that carrying […]

A B-2 bomber damaged in a runway excursion about a year ago at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri was ferried to Palmdale, California, where it was built, showing the scars of its gear collapse. Photographer Tom Jordan caught the plane landing showing the obviously temporary repair. The half-billion-dollar aircraft was stitched up with speed […]