Topic
Future aircraft, including air taxis and eVTOLs, autonomous planes, and next-gen jets.
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Heart Aerospace got a $2.9M FAA CLEEN award, matched to a $5.8M project, to build and test the turbogenerator for its ES-36 hybrid electric plane. Demo flights are aimed at 2028.
Zipline launched drone delivery in Round Rock, Texas on Oct. 8, with orders opening Oct. 9. It is the first commercial drone delivery service in the Austin area, and the company says it will spread across the metro.
On Oct. 9, Delta CEO Ed Bastian said the airline passed on Starlink over business terms, not Elon Musk, calling SpaceX's Wi-Fi 'fabulous.' Delta is sticking with Amazon Leo starting in 2028, a day after American said it will put Starlink on its whole mainline fleet.
On Sept. 24 BETA and Metro Aviation said the ALIA CTOL flew in Brenham with Washington County EMS. It was BETA's first Texas flight under the federal eVTOL pilot program. The job was moving disaster gear.
On Sept. 30 Shield AI put X-BAT flight test in Newton, Kansas, and production in Des Moines, Washington. Production is planned for 2029. Flight test is planned for later this year.
Assembly of the first certification Valo is planned to begin in Q4 2027, with type certification targeted for 2029.
HSR waiting period expired Sept. 18; Archer’s deal for Wisk, Insitu, and SkyGrid still aims to close by year-end 2026: eVTOL plus drones plus airspace software under one roof.
Under FAA’s eIPP in Virginia, Electra’s hybrid-electric EL2 used helicopter-style instrument procedures and off-runway pads: a blueprint for Ultra Short ops that skip congested runways.
A Sept. 15 production license lets hypersonic startup Hermeus manufacture the F100-PW-229 — second U.S. source for F-15/F-16 power, and vertical integration for Quarterhorse.
A converted Cessna crossed the U.S. with no safety-pilot inputs — 3,199 miles, official. The real product isn't the air taxi — it's autonomy for freight, defense, and remote logistics.
Joby flew its electric air taxi on real North Texas routes into Dallas Fort Worth airport airspace under a federal pilot program — ops data, not a skyline photo op.
Air taxis win or lose on regulators, noise, and unit economics — not another CGI flight over downtown.