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Beta Technologies' Alia, which debuted Friday, draws inspiration from the ultra-efficient Arctic tern. The craft may one day transport organs for transplants.
Air-taxi startup Beta Technologies debuted its new aircraft Friday with a dramatic…

A New Air Taxi Model Takes Design Cues From a Far-Flying Bird

The electric air taxi business—spurred along for years by Uber’s Elevate initiative and also known as flying cars—is flying into a cloudy unknown: The murky pall of the Covid-19 pandemic and its related, brutal economic downturn. Given how plummeting…

Covid-19 Casts a Dark Cloud Over the Flying Car Future

In 1992, German filmmaker Wim Wenders released an epic, globetrotting cinematic adventure called Until the End of the World. Set in the “near future” of 1999, the film follows the path of a mysterious traveler named Sam Farber (William Hurt) and an…

This 30-Year-Old Sci-Fi Epic Is a Saga for Our Times

An updated version of the US Air Force’s trusty F-15 Eagle fighter jet had its first flight test recently and demonstrated its bag of tricks with a dramatic, nearly vertical “Viking takeoff”. The flight, from manufacturer Boeing’s facility at Lambert…

The Air Force's Venerable F-15 Gets a Makeover

The coronavirus pandemic continues to send shock waves through every industry, and the automotive world is no exception. For manufacturers attempting to pivot to a more sustainable model, an especially pressing question is: Can electric cars…

As Other Carmakers Retrench, Volvo's Battery Lab Plugs Away

If it weren’t for the racket from a helicopter landing on the roof, the complex of heavily modified and interconnected cargo containers in a corner of Burlington International Airport would be a great place to hang out. The structure has a sleek…

A Rest Stop Where Flying Cars Can Recharge

The Covid-19 pandemic is producing economic, political, and social disruptions not seen in decades, and major industries, from finance to airlines, have already felt the impact. The latest casualty: the US auto industry, which announced Wednesday a…

Covid-19 Is Bad for the Auto Industry—and Even Worse for EVs

If Goodyear scientists have their way, replacing complete tires every year or so simply because a few millimeters of rubber wears off will become a thing of the past. The company this week unveiled a far-out concept for a tire that will automatically…

Goodyear's Concept Tire Regenerates Burned-Off Rubber

Though the visions laid out by the developers of new electric vertical-lift aircraft have been fairly mundane so far—air taxis, cargo delivery—it was a matter of time before someone started sexing up those flying car fantasies. How soon before they…

Flying Car Developers Get a Boost From the Air Force

Since helicopters appeared some 80 years ago, they’ve used a single high-speed tail rotor to counteract the torque of the main rotor, stabilizing the aircraft in flight. But that rotor is both the key source of noise for helicopters and a big safety…

Bell's New Design Could Make Helicopters Quieter—and Safer

Late in the night at Daytona International Speedway last month, a January chill settles over the usually warm Florida coast that hosts the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona endurance race. Just under the halfway point, in the garages and pit lanes of the…

How a Street-Smart Supercar Got Ready for the Racetrack

Since commercial air travel took off in the 1950s, much has changed—tighter seats, safer flights, the rise and fall of seat-back screens—but not the nature of the planes themselves. The tube-and-wing design, after all, is reasonably efficient and…

Airbus’ Maveric Brings B-2 Bomber Style to Passenger Jets

If HBO’s Entourage ever comes back on the air—and hopefully it won’t—there will likely be a new character in the lineup along with the boys: a semi-sentient Cadillac Escalade. Because no vehicle could be better for wandering between parties than a…

Cadillac Brings Self-Driving Smarts to the New Escalade

As far as highways go, this one in South Korea is relatively smooth. No serious potholes or pavement cracks, but plenty of little bumps and divots. The newly unveiled Genesis GV80 SUV easily absorbs these imperfections, and so the only disruption…

Hyundai's Luxury SUV Mixes Mics and Math for a Silent Ride

When you take an Aston Martin into a turn, the only thought in your mind should be how to get out of it as fast as possible, preferably with tires smoking and the back end swinging out just enough to help you carry more speed through the curve in the…

Aston Martin's $189,000 DBX SUV Conquers the Arabian Desert

So far, development of the electric vertical-lift aircraft that will enable our dreams of future urban air taxis has largely been the purview of small aviation startups. The "bigs," Boeing and Airbus, have acquired or partnered with smaller firms,…

Bell and Hyundai Soar Into the Air Taxi Race

Tuesday’s attack by Iran-backed Shiite militia supporters on the US Embassy in Baghdad, followed by Friday’s US killing of top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani, sparked fears of an intense escalation of hostilities in the region.
Analysts say US…

How the US Prepares Its Embassies for Potential Attacks

The helicopter that crashed in New York City’s East River last year and led to the deaths of five young sightseers on an open-door flight was a “death trap,” according to the chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, which concluded its…

Feds Call Helicopter That Crashed in NYC River a ‘Death Trap’

“Hey, I can see my house from up here!”
It’s a joke so tired you’ll hear it from someone jumping on a trampoline, but that’s what came into my head as I banked a small turboprop airplane above my neighborhood in the new version of a revived classic,…

Bing Maps Make the Revived Flight Simulator Eerily Realistic

At a Texas conference hosted by Ross Perot Jr., air taxi innovators focused on how to get the public onboard with their ideas.
In the few short years that the modern electric air taxi movement has been gestating—launching in earnest with Uber’s…