Tag: Aircraft

Most drones come in a fixed form, and are pretty inflexible. The Airblock is a modular drone that encourages experimentation. It’s easy to assemble and disassemble and can be programmed like a robot. You can make the drone the way that you want.

I think Sir Mix-a-lot would love the Airlander 10 blimp. In fact, this airship looks like a giant butt so much that it has earned the nickname “Flying Bum” from the rather reserved Brits who have seen it take flight.

Anyone who has ever held onto the dream of climbing into a personal VTOL aircraft that can take them where they want to go has to be excited at the idea of the EHang 184 automated aircraft that we talked when it showed up at CES 2016.

Are you so filthy rich that you can’t stand driving in a car like the rest of the commoners around you? That’s understandable. Let the peasants suffer through traffic jams and pollution while you soar to your destination in nothing but blue skies, safe within the cockpit of the Cobalt Co50 Valkyrie personal aircraft.

I have lots of respect for the men and women of the armed forces. I also have more than a bit of jealousy for all those men and women who get to fly. Given a reboot, I would totally be a pilot flying anything that would break those Earthly bonds and whatnot.

DARPA has awarded contracts for a new program it’s calling “Gremlins.” But before you get all excited about the government funding murderous creatures that start as adorable Mogwai that turn bad if you feed them too late at night, DARPA’s Gremlins are unmanned flying drones that can be launched and recovered by a C-130 in mid-air.

DARPA works on some crazy stuff, but the crazy stuff has a way of becoming normal stuff eventually. At the moment, DARPA is working on a slick new VTOL aircraft that has the vertical landing capability of a helicopter mixed with speed and hauling capacity of a fixed wing aircraft.

Growing up, I fully expected by the time I was “old” I would totally have my own flying car. I’m rather angry that science hasn’t made that happen yet. At least not in any meaningful way.

Amsterdam is going to get what its organizers claim is the world’s first air show made up entirely of drone aircraft. The air show will be held at the Amsterdam Arena in the “near future” and will be held in conjunction with the Netherlands Air Force and an event planning company called Fjuze.

Despite feeling like a bit of a dork, I rather enjoyed riding a Segway. That said, I still had to contend with crowded sidewalks and hazards on the ground while riding one. If the guys behind AirBoard have their way, we could soon be hovering in the air instead of riding on bumpy sidewalks.

Scientists from the NASA AMES Research Center and Stanford University are working on an interesting new drone that is designed to be biodegradable. The idea is that if the drone is on a mission watching someone on the down low and crashes, it will melt away into the environment.

A few days ago, Virgin Galactic successfully completed another test flight. The test flight happened last Friday and saw the craft reach its highest altitude yet.

Unless you are a billionaire playboy or a business magnet of some sort, odds are you fly Coach like the rest of us when you travel by air. For the well-heeled, it’s First Class all the way, but for the really rich it’s private jets.

The number of soldiers on both sides of WWII that were killed or went missing is just staggering. Now, the mystery surrounding one RAF pilot and what happened to him and his plane has been solved after 70 years.

We’ve been suckers for space travel around here for a long time. My secret goal is to one day make enough money to afford a ticket aboard Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShip Two. Unfortunately, tickets for suborbital flights are insanely expensive, but it would be so cool to take one of those flights.

A group of British researchers at a company called Reaction Engines has announced new aircraft technology that could make air travel much faster. The researchers have created what they describe as “the biggest breakthrough in propulsion since the jet engine.”