Chinese eVTOL aircraft developer Aridge is expanding plans to conduct flight validation exercises in the UAE. On September 19, the company signed an agreement with Ras Al Khaimah officials to establish a so-called “sandbox” providing a regulatory framework to permit experimental flight trials.

Supersonic wind tunnels in the U.S. are often booked up to 18 months out, and customers typically rent the whole facility by the week. Starfighters Space offers an alternative: sustained Mach 2 flight aboard its eight Lockheed F-104 Starfighters, with test hardware carried under the wing or inside the aircraft. 

Joby Aviation’s autonomy-equipped Cessna Grand Caravan has finished a 3,199-mile trip from California to North Carolina’s Outer Banks without a single control input from the safety pilot on board. The company billed the trip as the first autonomous flight across the U.S., though the turboprop single covered the distance in stages over eight days, with stops in Arizona, Texas, and South Carolina.

Maintenance, repair, and overhaul providers will stay mired in supply chain bottlenecks unless they effectively tap data sources beyond those provided by manufacturers. Centrum AI says its new technology allows users to get a more complete assessment of the availability of parts and other hardware they need—avoiding the need to hold costly inventory to guard against delays.

The UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency has awarded a £15.7 million ($21.2 million) contract to Prismatic, a BAE Systems subsidiary, to test whether a ground-based energy beam can keep a solar-powered stratospheric aircraft flying around the clock—including through dark northern winters. Announced September 15, the contract calls for Prismatic to use its PHASA-35 uncrewed aircraft as the flight demonstrator.

Bristow Group has reserved 10 more early-delivery positions for Elroy Air’s Chaparral hybrid-electric cargo drone, bringing the helicopter operator’s total reservations to 15, the Byron, California-based start-up announced on September 17. In September 2023, Bristow placed deposits to secure its first five positions. The operator had signed a letter of intent in 2022 to preorder up to 100 Chaparrals.

Aura Aero has made its first flight of X-Volt, a modified Cessna 337 Skymaster formerly owned by fellow French hybrid-electric aircraft start-up VoltAero. In an announcement on September 16, Aura Aero said it is using the model as a technology demonstrator for its in-development 19-seat ERA regional airliner.

Honeywell Aerospace and partners have completed the integration of the subsystems composing the hydrogen-electric propulsion system they are developing under European Union-backed Project Newborn. On September 17, the U.S.-based group reported that its engineering team based at Brno in the Czech Republic has now established a functional hydrogen power source capable of generating and supplying electricity for an aircraft.