Joby Aviation has just completed a surprisingly quiet revolution in the skies over a California airfield. On November 7, their latest model, a turbine electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, took off for the first time from their Marina facility. This aircraft has combined the clean lift of electric motors with the constant leg-up of a gas turbine, resulting in longer flights and heavier loads than anyone could have dreamed.
Late October is typically a quiet time in aviation, but that was not the case at a California test site. A sleek matte gray jet with a mostly empty interior took off from Victorville’s runway, rose slowly, and was able to negotiate its own path through the sky without even a remote pilot at the controls. It was a historic event; no one was inside, and the entire route had essentially been left in the hands of the YFQ-44A, also known as Anduril’s Fury.
Flight simulators need precision, but ordinary joysticks isolate pilots from the action. Zeroshot, a creator who goes deep into virtual skies, was painfully aware of the gap. Commercial choices for force feedback exist, however they are expensive and difficult to get. Instead of compromising, he designed his own from scratch, integrating 3D printed parts, stepper motors, and ingenious circuitry to create a controller that resists every movement.
Lockheed Martin’s X-59 took off from Palmdale, California on October 28th, 2025 and landed an hour later near Edwards Air Force Base. The pilots took the pointy-nosed jet (which looked like something out of a sci-fi movie) for a spin, reaching 254 knots and 12,400 feet, to see how it handled and how all the systems worked.
Haneda Airport is one of the world’s busiest airports, and it welcomes a large number of travelers every year in the heart of Tokyo. Terminal 3, Japan’s international flight hub, has already demonstrated a strong respect for the country’s past with the Edo Koji zone, a strip of shops and walkways that truly captures the spirit of those tiny, atmospheric 17th century Edo side streets – you can almost imagine what it must have been like to stroll through those narrow alleys back in the day, complete with an authentic section of the Nihonbashi bridge as it appeared in bygone days.
Shield AI debuted its latest creation Wednesday in front of a crowd of military leaders, lawmakers, and industry watchers in Washington, D.C. The company already received a $200 million contract from the US Coast Guard last year for their smaller V-BAT scout drone, but the X-BAT puts them in heavier ground, literally: it’s a Group 5, the biggest class of unmanned aircraft, weighing more than 1,320 pounds.
Aamir Khollam stepped out of his weather-beaten SUV into the blinding snowy vastness of Svalbard, where the biting wind lashed through his parka like a fresh shave. He yanked open the trunk and pulled out a black duffel bag, a bit bigger than the one he’d toss into the back of the car for a quick weekend getaway. With a few yanks of the zipper, the bag came apart… and out spilled Janus-I, a folding helicopter that had already conquered the Himalayas.
At the 2025 UPSummit, 20,000 people gathered to witness an incredible sight: four of Jetson’s sleek ONE personal flyers humming to life on the tarmac. Team members from the Polish company went all out with their Air Games demonstration, putting on a real show stopper: four aircraft lifted off in tight formation and slashed through the air like a squadron from an 80s sci-fi film. Tomasz Patan, the company’s founder, flew in the show, delivering a smooth performance with those eight propellers churning through the Arkansas air.
