Interesting Airplanes

Electric Race Plane Unveiled

Air Race E unveiled an electrified Cassutt Formula One race plane capable of 300 MPH at the Dubai Air Show on Sunday. The tiny aircraft, which is familiar to those who attend the National Championship Air Races in Reno, was modified with a 150-kilowatt motor and about 200 pounds of lithium batteries replacing the Continental […]

Read More »

BelugaXL Earns EASA Type Certification

Airbus announced that its BelugaXL transport aircraft received its type certification from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) on Wednesday. According to Airbus, the model completed more than 200 flight tests for a total of over 700 flight hours during its flight test campaign. The BelugaXL is expected to enter service in early 2020. Based […]

Read More »

NASA’s Maxwell Electric Debuts: First Flight In 2020

NASA formally unveiled its electric airplane test bed last week and the Maxwell (more formally the X-57) will be the agency’s first manned aircraft project in 20 years. The aircraft, which is based on a Tecnam 2006 light twin, is still at least a year from its first flight but the two largest of its […]

Read More »

Electric Beaver May Fly By Year’s End

A Canadian seaplane airline expects to flight test an electrically powered De Havilland Beaver before the end of the year with an eye to flying passengers in 2022. As we reported earlier this year, Harbour Air, which flies about 40 floatplanes to islands and coastal communities on the west coast of British Columbia, announced it […]

Read More »

Rutan Working On EVTOL

Legendary aircraft designer Burt Rutan has reportedly turned his outside-the-box vision toward eVTOL transportation and he’s already said to prepare for something different. “It’s pretty different from the 170 different outfits that are doing eVTOL now,” he is quoted as saying by Aviation Week. “And that’s all I can say about it.”  Rutan “retired” in […]

Read More »

Flexjet Buys $1.4 Billion In Embraer Jets

At NBAA-BACE 2019 in Las Vegas, Embraer marked the recent certification of its refreshed line of midsize business jets with the announcement of a firm order from FlexJet worth $1.4 billion. The fractional operator will take a mix of 64 aircraft, including an unspecified number of new Praetor 500 and 600 jets. The balance of […]

Read More »

Kitty Hawk’s Newest VTOL Almost Silent

Kitty Hawk’s latest entry into the incipient urban mobility market is missing something important and it might be its biggest selling point. The new Heaviside (named for Oliver Heaviside, a controversial early 20th century physicist and electrical engineer) is virtually silent in flight with a noise level of about 38 decibels at 1,500 feet. Helicopters […]

Read More »

Travolta’s 707 Donation Flight Delayed

John Travolta’s Boeing 707 is the gift that keeps on taking and he likely won’t be making a farewell trip to Australia in the plane this November. Travolta, who has owned the aircraft since 1998, has donated it to Historical Aircraft Restoration Society in Albion Park, about 100 miles south of Sydney. The plan was […]

Read More »

Door Blows During 777X Pressurization Test

Boeing’s next generation 777X project suffered a setback on Thursday when a door blew off during pressurization tests. There were no injuries in the mishap, which occurred on the static test plane, an aircraft that is shrouded by protective and structural metal superstructure to put massive stress on the airframe, sometimes to the point of […]

Read More »
Sign-up for newsletters & special offers!

Get the latest stories & special offers delivered directly to your inbox

SUBSCRIBE