Interesting Airplanes

As the U.S.’s traditional adversaries flex their territorial muscles, there are more public announcements about new secret programs and the analysts at Forbes believe a drone-carrying B-21 stealthbomber is a possibility. At a recent defense forum, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall fessed up that two new development programs will show up in the next budget, […]

Rolls-Royce is claiming the record for the world’s fastest flight by an all-electric aircraft after its Spirit of Innovation hit a maximum speed of 387.4 MPH in a series of flights on Nov. 16. The aircraft, an electric version of the Nemesis NXT kit racing plane, is Rolls-Royce’s test bed for electric technology and is […]

Japan has OK’d a type certificate program for the Skydrive crewed octocopter and the company says it plans to have an air taxi service using a larger aircraft by 2025. It’s the first type certificate application for a so-called “flying car” and was issued for the SD-03. The project is backed by Toyota. It’s a single-seat […]

A Swedish company has unabashedly adopted the pop culture name synonymous with flying cars and is now taking orders for what might be a viable personal eVTOL. The production model Jetson One was unveiled last week and the 12 ultralight and drone-like single-seat aircraft being built in 2022 have already been sold at the introductory […]

A pristine example of one of the hottest rides of the Cold War is up for sale for what seems to be a bargain price and the bonus is that there’s room for two. An Arizona company is selling an airworthy Lockheed CF-104D fighter/interceptor for $850,000, about the same price as an SR22, and it […]

A European air taxi operator has put a deposit down on future orders of Bye Aerospace’s eFlyer 800 to serve its short-hop scheduled service and on-demand flights. The King Air-sized twin is still on the drawing board and the FAA is still developing the regulatory structure for certification of electric aircraft, but both companies see […]

The FAA has taken a major step in certificating commercial electric aircraft by publishing special conditions for the approval of motors, controllers and support equipment made by magniX. The Washington State company has been testing two different motors on Cessna Caravan and De Havilland Beaver aircraft. “These engines have a novel or unusual design feature […]

Rolls-Royce has flown its all-electric Spirit of Innovation aircraft and says it will embark on an intense testing program to validate its engineering projections. The sleek prototype took off from the U.K. Ministry of Defense’s Boscombe Down test facility on Sept. 15. for a 15-minute hop. The flight was uneventful. The aircraft differs from most […]

All four people and a dog aboard a Cirrus SF50 VisionJet walked away from what might be the first hull loss in an accident for the type at Capital Regional International Airport in Lansing, Michigan, on Aug. 24. The single-engine jet went through a fence at the end of a runway during a takeoff attempt […]

A California company is testing a hybridized version of a Cessna 337 Skymaster on a short-haul route between Wick on Scotland’s mainland and the Orkney Islands town of Kirkwall. Ampaire’s push-pull twin has an electric motor in the front and the piston in the rear and the two powerplants share duties during different phases of […]