airplanes

Most people fear plane crashes, airplane terrorism and nuclear power accidents. However, these fears have resulted in stupid policies that increase deaths. Planes are far safer than cars. The TSA and anti-terrorism pre-flight checks are ineffective at catching terrorism and …

Boeing successfully completed the first test flight of its autonomous passenger air vehicle (PAV) prototype in Manassas, Virginia. Boeing NeXt, which leads the company’s urban air mobility efforts, used Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences to design and develop the electric …

Instanbul Airport in Turkey and Daxing Airport in Beijing will both open in 2019 to add huge competition for international airport megahubs. The airports are state-supported and will provide airport competition and extra capacity for a combined 160 million passengers. …

MIT engineers have built and flown the first-ever plane with no moving parts. Instead of propellers or turbines, the light aircraft is powered by an “ionic wind”. Ion wind propulsion systems could be used to fly less noisy drones. Eventually …

China and Russia had a life-size model of a proposed wide-body long-haul jet at the opening of China’s largest airshow. The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China and Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) showed off the model of the CR929’s cockpit …

Mixing magnetic nanoparticles into battery electrode materials and applying a light magnetic field doubles the discharge rate of batteries. 24M is making prototype batteries using this magnetic approach. Zunum will use the batteries for electric planes. The batteries must be …

Aerion Supersonic is still on track to its first supersonic flight in 2023. Complete certification is targeted for 2025. Supersonic business jet developer Aerion has launched preliminary design of its 12-seater, Mach 1.4-capable AS2 and revealed ambitions to develop bigger …