aircraft

NEWPORT NEWS, Va.--I'm staring down into a pit in which the beginnings of what will one day be the most advanced aircraft carrier on Earth are already well under way.

This is the dry dock of CVN-78, otherwise known as the Gerald R. Ford, the first in a technologically advanced new class of aircraft carriers known as, yes, the Gerald R. Ford, and yes, named after the 38th president of the United States. A new class of naval vessel is always known by the name of the first model, it seems.

CVN-78 is being built by Northrop Grumman … Read more

Boeing will put its Phantom Ray flying wing into the air before the end of the year.

The aerospace giant says that the unmanned aerial vehicle, unveiled at Boeing's St. Louis facility on Monday, is on track to make its first flight in December. The Phantom Ray will be a testbed for unspecified "advanced technologies," and in a press release Monday, Boeing rattled off an array of potential missions for the aircraft, from the now standard UAV tasks of recon and surveillance to aerial refueling, electronic attack, and the menacingly vague "strike." (A separate Boeing feature … Read more

Since I was young, I've dreamed of being a pilot. I'm still nowhere close to that shining goal as age slowly creeps up on me.

My next target is to cough up $90,000, which again is a near-impossible ambition as I am a poorly paid scribe. At least I can write about it. Humpf.

The Martin Jetpack by New Zealand's Martin Aircraft is the closest thing to bringing my childhood fantasies to life. If I place an order now and put down a 10 percent deposit, it could be mine in 12 months. The problem is … Read more

Boeing on Friday reported that it has completed the first round of stall tests for its 787 Dreamliner, just over a month after the plane's much-publicized first flight.

That first flight took place at Paine Field in Everett, Wash., on December 15, 2009. Since then, the company has been subjecting two separate 787s to a series of tests, all of which are meant to advance the plane toward its initial commercial delivery sometime later this year.

For the stall tests, the 787's pilots deliberately reduced power in both the plane's engines and then quickly attempted to resume … Read more

NASA scientists have come up with a design for a hover-capable, electric-powered aircraft they dub "Puffin."

The contraption, announced at an American Helicopter Society meeting in San Francisco last week, is being touted as a potential revolution in the way people transport themselves. The Puffin, which stands 12 feet high and has a wingspan of 13.5 feet, theoretically can cruise at 150 miles per hour and reach speeds of more like 300 miles per hour.

Read more of "NASA reveals one-man electric plane" at CBSNews.com.

General aviation pilots can use Aircraft Weight and Balance to check their aircraft before takeoff. It takes into account the weight of the pilot, the plane's oil and fuel, plus the weight of any front or rear passengers and their baggage. The program has presets for one actual aircraft plus two dummy presets. Users can edit the program's INI file to input data for their specific planes.

The program's interface is basic but functional, and pilots will understand it easily. The first question we had when we opened the program was how to make a preset for … Read more

Military Aircraft is a basic screensaver consisting of high-quality photos of fighters, bombers, and other butt-kicking aircraft. Although it doesn't do anything fancy, it has all the features we would expect of a basic screensaver and functions well.

Unlike many free screensavers, Military Aircraft contains attractive, high-resolution images. We do not particularly consider ourselves to be aviation buffs, but we enjoyed the screensaver's 22 photos and the wide range of interesting aircraft they depict; lovers of military aircraft should find this screensaver quite enjoyable. The program's settings are accessed through the Screen Savers tab in the Display … Read more

iFighter Lite is a fun, free, one-level preview of the upcoming game iFighter, a vertical-scrolling arcade shooter in which you pilot a WWII fighter plane against wave after wave of Nazi tanks, planes, bosses, and other ground and air targets. iFighter's interface lets you control your plane in one of three ways: with a touch directional pad, swiping touch controls, or simply by tilting your iPhone or iPod Touch.

The accelerometer-based controls are by far the best--and they're arguably an improvement over even the controls of iFighter's stand-up arcade predecessors, allowing for quick and precise movements as … Read more

The vertical takeoff and landing tiltrotor is yet another aerial configuration the military would like to add to its unmanned-aircraft inventory.

One experimental model, the Mono Tiltrotor (MTR) by Baldwin Technology, is intended to integrate a coaxial rotor, a folding lifting wing system with a lightweight airframe and sophisticated kinematics to deliver a robotic flying box car. The U.S. Navy wants the MTR, or something similar, to deliver cargo to Marines on the ground.

The unit, referred to generically as Cargo UAS (for Cargo Unmanned Aircraft System), should be autonomous, to the extent that it can take off and … Read more