The skies of the future could be divided into “manned” and “drone” segments as regulators struggle to work out how commercial drones should interact with traditional human-piloted aircraft. That was the most startling line from yesterday’s Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic seminar, held at the Royal Aeronautical Society’s HQ in …

The British aerospace industry could carve itself a niche in “space tourism,” according to a new report. “Space tourism is a new, highly sought-after sector in the emerging ‘New Space’ industry,” said manufacturing trade organisation EEF’s Aerospace Bulletin report. So far just one nominally British company, Virgin Galactic, …

A Singapore Airlines Boeing 777 carrying 241 passengers and crew has caught fire at Changi Airport, but everybody was evacuated safely. The 777-300ER had left for Milan when an engine oil warning forced it to turn around. It touched down shortly before 7am local time, and while on the runway, the fire started. Emergency crews …

Apparently, DARPA likes what it sees in its TERN project. Earlier this month, it gave contractor Northrop Grumman just under US$18 million to build the second of its Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node aircraft. Part of the significance of this is that the contract notice that went out on June 17 was the first hint the …

NASA has announced the eight projects with "the potential to transform future aerospace missions" which will receive funding under Phase II of its NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program. The awards of up to $500,000 over two years will allow the recipients to advance their ideas, which "successfully demonstrated …

After weathering a decade of delays, cost overruns, and technical difficulties with its latest high-tech aircraft, Boeing CEO James McNerney says the company isn't planning any more ambitious gambles like the 787 Dreamliner, but will instead focus on cutting costs and increasing production. According to a report by the Seattle …

Topflight boffins say they may be able to plumb the secrets of silently-flying owls and use them to make all sorts of wing and propeller machinery - planes, helicopters, wind turbines, even submarines - much quieter than they are today. "Owls possess no fewer than three distinct physical attributes that are thought to …

Questions remain over the likely outcome of a proposed £30bn merger between BAE Systems and EADS which would create the world's second-biggest aerospace and defence company. Securing government approval for the deal from the French, German and British governments is considered to be pivotal to the merger going ahead. While …

NASA has awarded $100,000 in funding for a unique four-pointed flying wing that rotates mid-flight to transition between super and subsonic flight, thus increasing efficiency and eliminating sonic booms. The proposed Supersonic Bi-Directional Flying Wing (SBiDir-FW) aircraft, by Florida State University aerospace engineer Ge- …

US-centred but UK-controlled weapons globocorp BAE Systems plc has reached a civil settlement with the US State Department regarding violations of American arms-technology export laws. Under the deal announced today the firm will pay a fine of $79m, up to $10m of which may be spent internally on enhanced compliance measures. …

Analysis Yesterday the UK National Audit Office published a detailed report on the current status of the infamous Eurofighter combat jet – nowadays officially known as Typhoon. We here on the Reg defence desk have always had a low opinion of the cripplingly expensive, marginally useful fighter: but even we were amazed by the new facts …

Analysis The death-tech beat has spoken of little else but China's new "stealth fighter" for some weeks now – and yesterday, funnily enough just as the US Defense Secretary was visiting Beijing, the J-20 (or whatever it may turn out to be officially called) finally took to the air. The People's Republic is making no real effort to keep …

Pic US arms'n'aerospace megacorp Boeing has now moved its Phantom Ray robot stealth fighter to Edwards Air Force Base in California for flight testing. The unmanned jet was shipped there on the back of one of NASA's well-known piggyback jumbo jets, more usually employed moving space shuttles about. The Phantom Ray UAS piggybacked …

Radical Pentagon boffins say they now understand why their hypersonic aeroplane/missile prototype, the Falcon HTV-2, cracked up in flight above the Pacific in April - and say they are on course for another trial flight next year. DARPA concept of the HTV-2 manoeuvring in the upper atmosphere. Talk about a hot ship Regular …

Book review The best mad scientist autobiography this year, perhaps the only one, is Tony Zuppero's To Inhabit the Solar System. Better still, it's free and in time for holiday reading. It's a long but definitely not windy 391 pages. In it, Zuppero confirms everything - bad, weird, insane, amusing or simply astonishing - you might have …

The famous Pentagon tech wildcards at DARPA have announced plans to move forward with a flying, full-size prototype "Vulture" strato-wingship able to cruise the upper atmosphere for 5 years without landing. The Vulture programme got underway last year with three competing industry teams carrying out development work on …

A senior RAF officer has stated unequivocally that the British government considers itself under no obligation to buy any more Eurofighter/Typhoon jet fighters. The statement would seem to confirm that no more will in fact be bought: but the taxpayer may yet spend billions more on upgrading the existing RAF fleet. Eurofighter …

The inventor of a potentially revolutionary super-quiet "flying taxi" has died in a crash while test-flying his prototype in Malaysia. That Jetpod range in full Any colour you like. Michael Dacre, MD of British-headquartered Avcen, was at the controls of a "Jetpod" aircraft at Tekah airstrip near Taiping when it crashed …