Interesting Airplanes

The Air Force’s latest test aircraft is probably the slowest in the fleet but that’s the whole point. A CubCrafters XCub has been delivered to the Air Force Research Laboratory in Maryland where the aircraft, an updated version of an 83-year-old design, will be fitted with a state-of-the-art helmet and sensor system for “personnel recovery […]

A California man has set a world speed record for RC aircraft by using an aerodynamic oddity to push his glider to 548 MPH. Spencer Lisenby used a technique called dynamic soaring to whip his heavily reinforced composite glider to almost Mach levels over a mountaintop near Los Angeles on Jan. 19. The Santa Anna […]

An Oklahoma group has flown an almost precise duplicate of the Ryan NYP that carried Charles Lindbergh on his historic 1927 trans-Atlantic flight from New York to Paris and is setting its sights on a reenactment. The Spirit 2 has been under construction for 18 years in Bethany, Oklahoma, with almost every piece and component […]

The FAA will allow supersonic flights over the U.S. to make it easier for testing of the next crop of proposed supersonic business aircraft. “The renewed interest in development of supersonic airplanes caused FAA to review its application procedures that allow for flight tests of these aircraft,” the agency said in its final rule. “This final […]

The lively debate over the existence of an actual “jetpack man” frequenting the airspace around Los Angeles took a turn for the real last week and now skeptics and believers alike have video to pore over. What’s more, the video was shot from the air by a pilot who’s not saying which side of the […]

A British startup has attracted some heavyweights in the electric aircraft business to create a hybrid-electric utility aircraft that can fill a variety of roles. Faradair Aerospace founder Neil Cloughley says Honeywell, magniX, Cambridge Consultants and Nova Systems have signed on to help develop his Bio Electric Hybrid Aircraft (BEHA). “Their input will enable us […]

It would appear an engine swap is next for Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity suborbital spacecraft after an aborted test flight from its new spaceport near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. “The ignition sequence for the rocket motor did not complete,” the company tweeted after the early-morning flight. “Vehicle and crew are in great shape. We […]

Embraer has partnered with the Brazilian arm of Portuguese energy company EDP to build a pure electric version of the EMB-2013 Ipanema aerial application aircraft. The first test flight is scheduled for early 2021. “Through EDP’s Smart division, the multinational of Portuguese origin announced a financial contribution for the acquisition of an energy storage and […]

Stratolaunch has started construction on its hypersonic testbed aircraft, the Talon-A, as it looks toward test flights as early as 2022. The company recently tweeted pictures of the Mach 6 aircraft’s first fuselage layups. It’s expected the first flights will be part of a military test program as the competition between superpowers for hypersonic weapons […]

The Mahindra Group has stopped manufacturing the GippsAero GA8 and development of the GA10 Airvan utility aircraft but it has pledged to continue servicing the existing fleet. “We have shutdown GippsAero. It is up for sale if someone wants to buy it,” Mahindra spokesman Anish Shah told reporters in a recent earnings call. “We have […]