Experimentals

As construction of your project nears its end and you start thinking seriously about your first flight, there are some important things to consider. Paperwork comes first. You just can’t do anything that involves a government approval without the proper paperwork. Next, the plane must be truly ready to fly. The question is, what does […]

Two very different “flying-car” projects have reported major moves forward this week. Terrafugia, which has been working to certify a “roadable aircraft” with folding wings under the LSA rules, confirmedon Monday that it has become a fully owned subsidiary of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, a Chinese conglomerate that also owns Volvo and focuses on the […]

Ohio-based Workhorse Group, which builds hybrid electric trucks for UPS, FedEx and others, thinks it’s time to rethink the design characteristics of the traditional helicopter. The first stab at it is the SureFly VTOL aircraft. It attracted huge attention at the Innovations Center at AirVenture Oshkosh this past summer. Aviation Consumer Editor Larry Anglisano took […]

Uber has signed a deal with NASA to develop software for the air taxi it plans to have in service within five years. At a web conference in Lisbon on Wednesday, Uber’s Jeff Holden said the company is teaming with NASA to develop a range of technologies designed to track and de-conflict its human-carrying quadcopters […]

Electric powerplants and autonomous systems continue to make progress, with reports this week of first flights and new designs. In China, the two-seat RX1E-A, an advanced version of the RX1E, designed by Shenyang Aerospace University, flew for the first time this week and proved it can now fly for up to two hours on a […]

NASA researchers are testing new technologies that should lead to wing designs that are lighter, more efficient, quieter and safer than today’s wings, the agency said this week. The Passive Aeroelastic Tailored, or PAT, wing is expected to arrive later this year at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center in California. The uniquely designed composite wing […]

Virgin Galactic is about three months away from launching into space, founder Richard Branson said at a business forum in Finland recently. He added that he expects to fly into space about three months after that. The company has said it expects to start launching flights for paying tourists by the end of next year. […]

One of the benefits I have found of being in the aviation writing business is that I get the chance to fly a fair number of other people’s planes. Whether I am doing it to write a flight review on the type, test or check out new avionics, or am simply offered the chance to […]

Scaled Composites rolled out and flew its most recent project on Wednesday, the company has announced. The company built two identical single-engine jets to demonstrate for an unnamed customer Scaled’s “advanced, low-cost manufacturing techniques” for the production of research aircraft for industry and government. “Today was a great day for our test team,” said Aaron […]

Dubai took another step toward providing autonomous flying taxi service, when an unmanned Volocopter took off and flew a demo flight above the city on Monday. It was the “first-ever public flight of an autonomous urban air taxi,” according to Volocopter. “This establishes the feasibility and safety of airborne taxis as a means of public […]