Emerging Technologies

Some 14 years after exiting the single-aisle engine market, Rolls-Royce is trying to get back into it, unveiling a new engine concept called the UltraFan 30—but can it break the CFM-Pratt duopoly?

Syzygy Plasmonics has signed an agreement to develop commercial-scale facilities in Brazil to produce SAF using biogas created from sugar crop waste.

Lufthansa Group has called on the EU to widen its electro-sustainable aviation fuel (eSAF) mandate to include other transport modes.

Rolls-Royce has teamed up with UK project developer Equilibrion to explore whether small modular nuclear reactors could be used to power eSAF production.

The middle mile between large freighters and van deliveries is notoriously inefficient. A new generation of startups is confident it has the solution.

French flow control, JAXA’s reusable rocket, hypersonic tunnel returns and laser link from GEO.

Since Airbus announced it was delaying plans to develop a zero-emission airliner by up to 10 years, the landscape for hydrogen propulsion pioneers has changed.

Aviation Week takes the wraps off NASA’s Lockheed Martin-built X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft as preparations begin for envelope expansion tests.

Plans to flight test CFM International’s Open Fan engine on an Airbus A380 are accelerating following the initial meeting of the Safran-led Take Off project.

After making progress with air traffic control procedures for fuel-saving formation flights, Airbus is transitioning fello’fly project work to the flight deck.

A series of Korean Air initiatives to enhance fuel management resulted in a 3.3% reduction in emissions in 2025 despite a 2.6% increase in flight operations.

AAM developers developers are increasingly leaning on simulation to overcome challenges that span pilot training, engineering and aircraft design.

Collins Aerospace has developed a common automation platform that would be a candidate for a new system the FAA envisions for its new air traffic control system

International Airlines Group (IAG) has shared key risk assessments and clauses that it includes in long-term sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) contracts.

The next-generation single-aisle aircraft Airbus is considering for program launch by 2029 may rely on avionics technology derived from its current offering.

The new UltraFan demonstrator program is gearing up as Rolls advances plans to challenge CFM and Pratt & Whitney for the next-generation single-aisle market.

Europe’s research on composite materials targets further weight reduction in airframes as well as sovereignty in engine production.

Fifty-seven years after the first flight of the Anglo-French Concorde, is aviation really closer to returning to a new age of commercial supersonic travel?

Studies toward composite materials able to withstand higher temperatures for applications in an engine’s environment are in full swing.

Self-healing composites; supercooled-droplet icing detector; and new flight rules for advanced air mobility.

A Hypersonix Launch Systems vehicle completed its first flight late on Feb. 27, propelled to Mach 5-plus speeds by a Rocket Lab HASTE rocket.

Rolls-Royce unveils the UltraFan 30 engine concept for next-gen single-aisle aircraft, targeting 20% fuel efficiency and advanced aerodynamics by late 2030s.

Honeywell’s methanol-to-jet tech powers e-SAF production for Verso Energy’s plants in Europe and the U.S., advancing sustainable aviation fuel innovation.

Rolls-Royce sees multiple partnership opportunities to bring to market a new narrowbody engine as the company gears up to ground test demonstrator hardware.

Airbus Helicopters is actively exploring a European derivative of the H145-based autonomous Lakota connector aircraft it is developing for the U.S. Marine Corps.