Interesting Airplanes

The FAA has allowed an exemption to light sport rules for the Textron/Pipistrel Velis Electro. The agency has permitted an exemption to 14 CFR Part 21.190, the special airworthiness certificate for light sport category aircraft, and that will pave the way to use it for flight training. The aircraft, which is type certified in Europe, […]

Piper says deliveries of its new flagship M700 FURY will begin “immediately” after the aircraft earned type certification on Feb. 29. It also said there will be new aircraft announced shortly. “We are thrilled to announce the U.S. certification of the Piper M700 FURY by the FAA just a month after its announcement,” said John […]

Disgraced celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti’s 2016 HondaJet is back on the market after it was purchased late last year at a Treasury Department auction. A new owner, represented by Global Elite Aviation, bought the aircraft, which had been seized by the government when Avenatti, who most famously represented Stormy Daniels in her suit against then-President […]

French startup Beyond Aero has announced it flew a crewed LSA-sized demonstrator aircraft based on a ULA G1 using a hydrogen-electric propulsion system. It’s the first step in eventually creating a hydrogen-powered business aircraft. The little plane, dubbed the Bleriot, took off from Gap-Tallard, France, in early January with test pilot Paul Prudent at the […]

Piper has introduced its top-tier entry in the high-performance single world with the unveiling of the M700 Fury on Feb. 6. The Florida planemaker says the Fury cruises at 300 knots at up to 30,000 feet and features a HALO Safety System that includes Garmin Autoland. Base price is $4.1 million, but there are plenty […]

On Friday, NASA and Lockheed Martin displayed the X-59 QueSST (Quiet SuperSonic Technology), the agency’s latest X aircraft designed to break the sound barrier without generating a sonic boom. The aircraft was shown off at a ceremony hosted by Lockheed Martin Skunk Works at its Palmdale, California, research facility.  According to NASA, the X-59 QueSST is integral to […]

Cirrus is teasing a new product introduction on Thursday it calls “the next evolution of personal aviation,” but it won’t be saying what it is until the YouTube livestream starts at 7 p.m. EST that night. It’s widely speculated that it’s a new iteration of one of its current models, the next generation of the […]

An oddball piece of aerospace research history is up for auction by the General Services Administration. NASA’s Quiet Short-Haul Research Aircraft is being sold as is from the ramp at NASA’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California. The high bid is currently $10,001, but the plane was also built on a shoestring […]

A Silicone Valley defense contractor (yep) says it’s come up with a relatively inexpensive high-speed jet drone to counteract the drone swarms that are reshaping war half a world away. Both Ukraine and Russia are becoming increasingly reliant on pilotless kamikaze drones that can loiter invisibly for hours and pounce on unsuspecting targets with high […]

GippsAero, maker of the Airvan 8 utility aircraft, is returning to its Australian roots after founder and former CEO George Morgan bought out the shares owned by India’s biggest company. Since 2010 Mahindra Aerospace has been the majority shareholder in the company, which certified and began manufacturing the Airvan 8 in the mid-2000s. The partnership […]