The truth is that, statistically, planes are one of the safest ways to travel. But with that being said, even walking out your front door is going to come with its fair share of risks. So for all you hyper-paranoid aerophobes out there, Channel 4 is producing a documentary—The Crash—that attempts to officially settle, once and for all, which spot on an airplane least resembles that of a deathtrap. Read More >>

The B-2 Spirit aka Stealth Bomber has a very distintictive shape, and when you place it up against a hawk/falcon(?), you can suddenly see why. Nature has bombers of its own, and that form factor just happens to work out well for us too. But for all their similarities, I think we'd all prefer to get hit by the bird's bombs if we had to pick one. [The Aviationist] Read More >>

American Airlines has been leading the charge when it comes to replacing old-fashioned paper with new-fashioned iPads, and the flight into a paperless future just took a big step. American Airlines is the first airline to have the iPad replace the bulky, Jepperson manuals, eliminating around 40lbs of paper in total. This is what that freedom looks like. Read More >>

Yesterday, Boeing detailed its solution for the 787 Dreamliner's battery problems. It involves improving the battery itself; fixing the charging system and adding another layer of protection with an added enclosure. Boeing is still committed to lithium-ion batteries and this solution will allow Boeing to continue to use them in the 787. Read More >>

Two months after Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner was grounded, investigators are still trying to figure out what caused a battery on one of the planes to catch fire. Apex reports that the latest information indicates the battery was never fully tested. Read More >>

We've all done our fair share of chucking paper aeroplanes at friends. And maybe, if you're a real engineer, you've made some clever, paper-folding modifications that let your plane do a loop — or better yet actually land on target. Joerg Sparve has turned his eye towards those paper aircraft, and needless to say, the outcome can do damage. Read More >>

Most airforces have been refuelling jets in mid-air for ages, extending the range of fighters and bombers so they can go nuke their targets. But did you know there's a bloke with a joystick, laying on his stomach and staring out of a window in the arse of the plane, actually flying the refuelling cable into the slot on the nose of the plane? Read More >>

Flying can be a white-knuckle affair for even the heartiest of travellers. But it turns out what you should really fear are airports; almost 60 per cent of all aircraft incidents happen there during taxiing, take-off, approach or landing. Here are runway horrorshows from around the globe that may make you rethink your next trip. Read More >>

In what is becoming almost as consistent as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west, the F-35—America's trillion dollar joke of a fighter jet—has been grounded again. I don't even know how many times the fighter jet has been grounded now, I've lost count. This time, it's because of a crack in a turbine blade of the engine. Read More >>

Dubbed the P.1HH HammerHead, this UAV is the result of a collaboration between Piaggio Aero and Selex ES based on the P-180 Avanti II, a twin-engine turboprop. The Avanti II is primarily utilised as a business jet with a 1400 NM range, though a "Special Mission" piloted derivative is also available for both emergency response and military operations. Read More >>

Turns out, Boeing's latest lithium troubles are shaking down to the rest of the airline industry. Airbus just announced that it is scrapping plans to outfit its A350 jets with the same secondary batteries that have caused its rival so much trouble. Read More >>

You've probably heard about the magical visualisation system in the F-35, the fabled Electro Optical Distributed Aperture System (or DAS) that feeds all kinds of data to pilots using demon helmets. Now it just got a new feature that makes it indistinguishable from a video game: hostile ground fire detection. Check out this cool video. Read More >>

Oh, Iran. Your Qaher 313 stealth fighter jet sure looks intimidating but it will never get off the ground. So why do you insist on tricking everybody into thinking that the beast can fly? Iran's latest transgression is especially hilarious: they've photoshopped the Qaher 313 onto a stock image of Mount Damavand to make it look like its flying. Read More >>

No one wants to be on a plane with batteries that are liable to explode, and since Boeing grounded its 787 Dreamliners after such an incident, no one has had to be. Except for the test crew that took one into the yesterday. But don't worry, it all turned out just fine. Read More >>

The amazing innovations in complex modern tea-baggery continue, with airline BA teaming up with tea specialist Twinings to develop a special blend that takes into account the variations in taste and temperatures experienced while scooting about 30,000 feet up in the sky. Read More >>