The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is channeling tens of millions of dollars into Aurora Flight Sciences for two experimental aircraft programs that together could redefine how the U.S.

Aviation, as humanity has been experiencing for the past 120 years or so, means an aircraft needs engines to take off and fly, wings to keep it in the air, and physical control surfaces (stabilizers, ...

There's a new X-plane in town. Bell Textron's tilt-rotor aircraft being built for DARPA's Speed and Runway Independent Technologies (SPRINT) program, which aims to combine the features of a helicopter ...

These are an ongoing series of extraordinary aircraft existing at the extreme cutting edge of technology. The “X-planes” are radical, often bizarre, machines that push the boundaries of what is ...

The United States is set to deploy a cutting-edge fleet of next-generation warplanes. The newly unveiled X-Plane, officially designated as the X-76, boasts the ability to take off without a runway ...

DARPA's X-65, that replaces conventional aircraft flight controls with puffs of air, is coming together at Boeing subsidiary Aurora’s Bridgeport, West Virginia facility. The fuselage is taking shape ...

At the end of October 2025, American space agency NASA finally flew, for the first time, its brand-new X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft. It was a rather short, unspectacular flight, but it ...

The next phase of Bell’s X-planes is on the horizon. The aviation company has just completed the Critical Design Review for the U.S.’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), underneath its ...

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has signaled a desire to revitalize the agency’s aeronautics program, calling for more experimental X-planes. “I’d love to see an expanded X-plane portfolio,” ...

The new X-plane is now officially known as the X-68A. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Breaking space news, the latest updates on ...

The Rotor Systems Research Aircraft/X-Wing, a vehicle that was used to demonstrate an advanced rotor/fixed wing concept called X-Wing, is shown here on Nov. 4, 1986. The vehicle was rolled out in 1986 ...