The time has come to jettison the traditional chemical rocket propulsion system and move to one powered by beamed microwaves, say a group of researchers.

For decades, even as rockets have gotten lighter and more powerful, the basic system for putting them in space hasn't changed. A combustion chamber is loaded with propellants, which are put through a chemical reaction, causing hot gases to accelerate and be ejected through a nozzle at very high velocity, which in turn, provides momentum to the rocket's engine.

But a team led by 25-year-old CalTech Ph.D. student Dmitriy Tseliakhovich thinks that … Read more

The Eurocopter Group is working on a concept aircraft that's a hybrid of a helicopter and a fixed-wing plane, the company announced today.

Dubbed the X3, the concept--which looks mostly like a helicopter, but with airplane propellers at either side--is designed to offer "the speed of a turboprop-powered aircraft" while boasting the hovering and vertical take-off and landing capabilities of a helicopter.

Ultimately, Eurocopter hopes to sell its concept to organizations that require "maximum cruising speed." It said that the hybrid rotorcraft could come in especially handy on search-and-rescue missions and other highly time-sensitive operations … Read more

Switzerland's famed Solar Impulse solar plane has chalked up another successful flight, this one designed to see how it would manage flying across the country and landing at its busiest airports.

Powered solely by solar energy, the Solar Impulse HB-SIA prototype took to the skies Tuesday morning to start the first leg of its multicity flight. Lifting off from home base in Payerne at 8 a.m., Solar Impulse co-founder and pilot Andre Borschberg flew the plane to Geneva, reaching the city's international airport a little before 12:30 p.m.

At the airport, curious visitors were allowed … Read more

Switzerland's Solar Impulse is ramping up for its next flight--this one designed to see how well it plays with other aircraft.

With weather conditions expected to be favorable, Solar Impulse co-founder and pilot Andre Borschberg will fly the solar plane from its home base in Payerne, Switzerland, tomorrow between 8 and 11 a.m. Central European Summer Time and land at Geneva between 12:30 and 1 p.m.

After Borschberg and fellow Solar Impulse founder Bertrand Piccard speak with the media and invited guests for a special information session, Borschberg will pilot the plane back home to Payerne … Read more

Boeing has won an $89 million government contract to build and fly an unmanned solar-powered plane that can--eventually--stay aloft continuously for up to five years. Yes, that's five years.

The defense contractor will develop the SolarEagle aircraft for the Vulture II program run by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, better known as DARPA. Scheduled to get off the ground for its first demo flight in 2014, the plane will likely serve as an electronic sensor and military communications platform. But it could eventually turn into a less expensive alternative to communications and reconnaissance satellites.

"SolarEagle … Read more

Space Adventures, the company that brokered eight private flights to the International Space Station aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft, is working with Boeing to launch wealthy space tourists and other non-NASA fliers aboard a capsule under development by the U.S. aerospace giant, officials announced Wednesday.

The Boeing CST-100 capsule, being designed to launch atop Lockheed Martin Atlas 5 rockets, Boeing's Delta 4, or the SpaceX Falcon 9, is intended to carry NASA and European Space Agency astronauts to and from the International Space Station under a NASA initiative to encourage development of private-sector spacecraft.

Under a separate memorandum of … Read more

After several years in development, Terrafugia's "flying car" could be available for sale before the end of next year.

Setting up shop in its new manufacturing plant in Woburn, Mass., Terrafugia is aiming for low-volume production of its "flying car," or Transition Roadable Aircraft, as early as late 2011, the company announced Wednesday.

For the longer haul, plans for high-volume production are uncertain and would depend on how well low-volume manufacturing goes. In the general aviation industry, low volume is typically tens or dozens of aircraft each year, while high volume can reach the mid-hundreds, … Read more

A Swiss team hoping to one day circle the globe in a solar-powered plane intends to take the craft out for a spin around Switzerland as soon as weather conditions become "favorable."

In a blog post, Solar Impulse said its plane is scheduled to lift off from an airport in Payerne, Switzerland, and then head for Geneva. After a stopover, the plane will pass over the Lake of Geneva, the regions of Fribourg, Bern, and Aarau and then land at the Zurich airport.

Earlier this year, the plane, known as HB-SIA, registered a couple of successful test flights--including … Read more

Emerging technology can ease the problem of wind farms causing interference with air-traffic control systems. But deployment of that technology in the U.S. has been slowed by questions over authority and cost.

Since 2006, radar maker Raytheon and National Air Traffic Services, which provides air traffic control in the U.K., have been working on a project to upgrade air traffic radar so it can distinguish between aircraft and wind turbines' spinning blades. Concerns over the disturbances turbines can cause on air traffic control systems are already stunting the growth of wind power: radar and wind turbines conflicts derailed … Read more