Flying

Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) manufacturer, ICON Aircraft, has announced two major design enhancements aimed at to simplifying aircraft complexity and increase safety in its A5 amphibious, two-seat, composite carbon fiber plane. The first improvement for the plane,which is edging closer to production, is the elimination of wing flaps, which will simplify pilot operations, while the second is a spin-resistant design that will include, amongst other things, the addition of wing cuffs to lower the stall speed of the aircraft. Read More

Putting aside ugly flying cars, no one should fail to be moved by the gorgeous warm-colored wood, hammered copper trims and time-worn patina of this gorgeous piece of antiquity. One of the last known Curtiss MF Seagull Flying Boats is to be sold at auction on Tuesday April 13 at Bonhams in New York. Rich in history, this beautiful vintage sea plane was designed and created by engineer and aviator Glenn H. Curtiss, otherwise known as "the Father of Naval Aviation." Read More

We've seen the value of using multiple rotors in unmanned microcopters like the CyberQuad, DraganFlyer X8 and more recently Parrot's AR.Drone. The HexaKopter is another case in point - the 1.2kg, six-rotor device has a flight-time of up to 36 minutes and can carry around 1kg along with a high-definition camera that delivers some amazing images. And it's also a lot of fun. Read More

Are you were waiting for a good reason to join the armed forces? Perhaps you are just a kid who always dreamed of flying and never grew up, or maybe you are thinking of challenging Yves (Jetman) Rossy in the human winged flight game? This could be the opportunity you’ve been waiting for. Get ready to duck … the Gryphon Next Generation Parachute System could be headed your way. Although engine-less, the Gryphon still has an electronic guidance system and heads-up display navigation and all equipment is cleverly tucked away making for better “stealth” flights. Read More

Today at just after 2pm GMT Swiss adventurer - and very brave soul - Yves Rossy jumped out of a plane over Tangier in Morocco and headed across the Atlantic Ocean towards Tarifa, Spain, some 23 miles away. The jet-powered flight was to be the first intercontinental Jetpack flight and would have been a mile further than his historic crossing of the English Channel last year. Unfortunately the attempt was thwarted by heavy clouds and ended with a - thankfully uninjured - Rossy ditching into the sea. Read More

Students at the University of Maryland’s Clark School of Engineering have turned to nature to create a flying device that can hover and perform surveillance duties, and that could lead to applications for military and emergency services. The enigmatic maple tree seeds (or samara fruit) - and the unique spiraling pattern with which they glide to the ground - have intrigued children and engineers for decades. Now aerospace engineering graduate students have applied the seeds’ design to airborne devices and created what they believe to be the world's smallest controllable single-winged rotocraft. Read More

The inventor of the ‘flying taxi’, Michael Robert Dacre, has died after a newly-assembled Jetpod prototype crashed during a test flight at Tekah airstrip, Taiping. Dacre, 53, was British-based Avcen Ltd’s managing director. He died at the scene. Read More