French aircraft manufacturer Elixir Aircraft and turbine engine developer Turbotech have taken a significant step toward the future of general aviation training by launching the Elixir Turbine Industrial Program. The announcement, made at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, follows a successful year of flight testing and formalises the partnership through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will guide the aircraft toward certification and commercial service by 2030. The agreement ma

By Garth Calitz Walk into any flying club, airport pub or hangar on a Saturday morning and mention the words "best avionics" if you want to witness a debate that makes discussions about oil brands or tailwheel versus nosewheel seem positively civilised. Within seconds, pilots will divide into tribes. Coffee will be spilt. Someone will begin drawing wiring diagrams on a serviette. An avionics engineer will quietly walk away before being asked for a quote. The truth is, there h

The Boeing MQ-28 Ghost Bat has reached another significant milestone in its development, becoming the first collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) to participate in the multinational Exercise Valiant Shield 2026, providing valuable insight into how autonomous aircraft could operate alongside crewed fighters in future coalition operations. Held across the Western Pacific in June, the biennial exercise brought together forces from the United States and allied nations to refine joi

Electra has taken another significant step toward bringing its innovative EL9 hybrid-electric aircraft to market after achieving an important certification milestone with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The Virginia-based aerospace company announced that the FAA has officially closed the G-1 Issue Paper for the EL9 Ultra Short aircraft, establishing the certification basis for the company's nine-passenger hybrid-electric design. The milestone marks the complet

Cape Town-based drone pilot and videographer Luke Bell has pushed the boundaries of unmanned aviation after setting a new Guinness World Record for the longest flight by a multirotor drone. His specially developed "Endurance Drone" remained airborne for an impressive 4 hours, 21 minutes and 39 seconds, establishing a new benchmark for electric multirotor endurance. The achievement represents the culmination of months of engineering, testing and refinement. Rather than relying

By Garth Calitz 30 June 2026 marks 58 years since one of the most ambitious aircraft ever built first took to the skies. On 30 June 1968, the Lockheed C-5A Galaxy made its maiden flight from Lockheed's production facility in Marietta, Georgia, introducing a military transport aircraft unlike anything the world had seen before. At the controls was Lockheed chief engineering test pilot Leo Sullivan, who guided the massive prototype through a successful 84-minute first flight. F

Puma Energy has bolstered its status as a top aviation fuel supplier in Africa by winning a substantial new contract, enhancing the company's influence in one of the world's rapidly expanding aviation markets. Through a competitive multi-airline jet fuel tender with the African Airlines Association (AFRAA), Puma Energy gained an advantage over competitors TotalEnergies and Vivo. Puma will provide the majority of the fuel volumes for key airlines such as Ethiopian Airlines and

By Garth Calitz For as long as pilots and aviation enthusiasts have been gathering around coffee pots at airfields, there have been a few certainties. Someone will insist that taildraggers are superior, that Steel aircraft are better than tupperware and someone else will proudly assert that blended-wing aircraft are the future. The first argument has been raging since the invention of the nosewheel. The second has been going on since composite materials took to the air in the

As airlines around the world face mounting pressure to reduce carbon emissions, South Africa is preparing to enter the rapidly emerging sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) market with what could become one of the world's first commercial-scale electro-sustainable aviation fuel (eSAF) production facilities. Energy company Phelan Green has announced that its clean fuels subsidiary, Phelan eFuels, will use Honeywell's Fischer-Tropsch (FT) Unicracking technology at its planned eSAF f

Before Bell delivered the first certified helicopter, the future of vertical flight was proven with an egg. While pilots and engineers struggled with the uncertainties of rotorcraft technology, a single demonstration showed how physics could not just make it possible, but safe. This became the spark that led Bell into pioneering a new era of aviation. A Visionary in Aviation Larry Bell’s lifelong passion for aviation led him to start the Bell Aircraft Corporation, now Bell Te