Recent Updates

A small boomerang-shaped aircraft that will go for a test launch later this year could be the first unmanned aerial system to glide over the surface of Mars, if NASA’s project comes to fruition. The Prandtl-m prototype’s test, one of three in the planning stages, will include a launch from a high-altitude balloon at about […]

Pipistrel cancelled plans to symbolically fly its Alpha Electro electric-powered training aircraft over the English Channel on Tuesday after Siemens, the supplier of the motor, issued a “demand not to fly over the water with their motor,” said Pipistrel CEO Ivo Boscarol in a statement (PDF). Boscarol said his company’s flight has been in the […]

The sight of an otherwise normal-looking light twin flying around the patch with no one in the cockpit has just put a new spin on unmanned aerial systems. Aurora Flight Sciences of Virginia announced it completed a series of test flights of its Centaur Optionally Piloted Aircraft in June as part of a project with […]

Well, as the BBC reporter in the posh British accent says in the accompanying video, it was only a matter of time. The first U.S. Aerial Gran Prix was held in L.A. a couple of months ago and now the loosely organized “sport” of drone racing (UAS racing just doesn’t have the ring) is exploding. […]

The other day, I was sitting at the kitchen table doing a little remedial work on my quadcopter after an unfortunate encounter with a tree. A neighbor, who happens to own a Cessna 170, dropped by and after eyeballing the drone for a few seconds, said, “I’d win.” Say again? “I’d win if I hit […]

A remote spit of land on New Zealand’s South Island will soon become a space launch site for Rocket Lab, which plans to offer low-cost launches for satellites using a smaller, specially designed rocket. The site is slated for completion by the end of the year and target markets will include universities and small startup […]

After nearly five days aloft “without a drop of fuel,” Solar Impulse 2 pilot Andre Borschberg touched down in the early-morning light at Kalaleoa Airport in Hawaii. He has just flown over the Pacific from Japan, completing leg 8 of the solar-powered airplane’s global voyage.In the meantime, Borschbergtook the title for the longest nonstop solo […]

LightSquared, the company that three years ago was proposing a nationwide cellphone network whose signals were shown to disrupt GPS signals, is back. In a multibillion-dollar gambit that could reduce the cost of cell service, potentially at the expense of GPS, it’s also asking the FCC to force GPS companies to help solve the technical […]

AVweb’s search of aviation news around the world found new business alliances announced by Paradigm Precision, Pratt & Whitney, Plane Perfect and Maule Air; and recognition for two women in aviation – one from Whirly-Girls International and another from EAA.Paradigm Precision has entered into a long-term agreement with Pratt & Whitney, a division of United […]

Back in the blissfully simple days of 1986, before cable news became the 24-hour din it is today, I recall watching some coverage of Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager landing the Voyager back at Edwards Air Force base, where they had begun their round-the-world flight nine days earlier. Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff had been […]