Aviation technology analysis with Vector. Electric aircraft, avionics advances, eVTOL certification, satellite connectivity, and the engineering innovations shaping the future of flight.
How Category III autoland uses triple-redundant autopilots and a radio altimeter to land an airliner in fog the crew cannot see through.
Radio Hangar explores Eviation Alice, the All-Electric Nine-Seat Commuter, and the Battery Math That Decides Whether a Clean-Sheet Electric Airliner Ever Earns Its Wings.
Eviation's all-electric Alice flew in 2022, but battery physics - not motors - will decide if it ever carries paying passengers.
Radio Hangar explores The Karman Line, Sixty-Two Miles Up, and the Altitude Where Wings Quit and Rockets Take Over.
The uAvionix AV-30-C is a 3⅛-inch software-defined instrument that replaces vacuum-driven gyros with solid-state MEMS sensors for a fraction of a glass panel's cost.
ADS-B broadcasts your aircraft's position unencrypted and unauthenticated - here's why that tradeoff powers modern surveillance and exposes you.
How Auto-GCAS, the F-16's ground collision system, waits until the last half-second to fly the jet out of a fatal dive itself.
How Electra's EL9 uses blown lift and hybrid-electric power to take off and land in 150 feet instead of a full runway.
JetZero's full-scale blended wing body demonstrator aims to fly by 2027 and cut airliner fuel burn by up to 50 percent.
How the Rolls-Royce Spirit of Innovation hit 387.4 mph to become the world's fastest all-electric aircraft - and what it proved.
The Boeing X-66 is a NASA experimental jet with a long, strut-braced wing designed to cut airliner fuel burn by up to 30%.
How SpaceX's titanium grid fins steer a falling Falcon 9 booster home from hypersonic speeds to a pinpoint droneship landing.
How hydrogen fuel cells power aircraft, why ZeroAvia flew a Dornier 228 on water vapor, and when hydrogen flight is realistic.
Garmin Smart Glide is a one-button system that pitches for best glide and steers you to the nearest reachable airport when your engine quits.
Joby's six-prop electric tilt-rotor bets everything on transition flight - here's the engineering, the promise, and the real hurdles ahead.
A dropsonde is a GPS weather sensor dropped from hurricane hunter aircraft to measure storms from the inside, sharpening the forecasts pilots fly against.
How G100UL, Swift Fuels, and the EAGLE initiative are ending leaded avgas by 2030 - and why the fight is now logistics, not chemistry.
How the FAA's experimental exemption turned homebuilt aircraft into the R&D lab that gave certified cockpits their glass panels and digital autopilots.
How Stratolaunch's Roc, the world's largest-wingspan aircraft, turns a runway into a spaceport through air-launch.
Why a ghost target of your own airplane appears on ADS-B traffic displays - and what it reveals about how the ground network builds your picture.