Aeronautics is the science and engineering of flight within the Earth’s atmosphere, encompassing the design, development, production, and operation of aircraft. This field covers a wide range of activities from commercial airline operations and military aircraft to the development of drones and space vehicles designed for atmospheric entry. Aeronautics includes disciplines such as aerodynamics, which studies the motion of air and the forces acting on aircraft; aeroelasticity, which examines the interaction between aerodynamic forces and structural flexibility; and avionics, which involves the electronic systems used in aviation. Advances in aeronautics have led to improvements in speed, safety, and efficiency, dramatically impacting global transportation and enabling quick and reliable international travel and cargo shipment. The field continuously evolves with technological innovations aimed at achieving greater fuel efficiency, reduced emissions, and enhanced capabilities in both civil and military aviation.
Analysis of eVTOL batteries reveals unique operating demands. Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are advancing clean transportation by developing and…
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft, developed with Lockheed Martin, aims to enable faster air travel with minimal noise impact, potentially changing commercial flight regulations. NASA…
Armando Collazo Garcia III got more than he expected from a graduate course he took last spring. He developed a new understanding of the physics…
During 64 years at MIT, the Institute Professor Emerita has been a trailblazer in aerospace and the U.S. military, and a changemaker for women in…
On the ground, windy conditions strengthen these electrical flashes, but new experiments tell a different story for flying objects. At the height of a thunderstorm,…
A team of engineers has built and tested a radically new kind of airplane wing, assembled from hundreds of tiny identical pieces. The wing can…
“We never dreamt that it would be this clear, this beautiful.” Physical Scientist J.T. Heineck of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California gets…
Integrating nanoscale fibers such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs) into commercial applications, from coatings for aircraft wings to heat sinks for mobile computing, requires them to…
To build more aerodynamic machines, researchers are drawing inspiration from an unlikely source: the ocean. A team of evolutionary biologists and engineers at Harvard University,…
A team of engineers at MIT has developed a method for designing efficient computer chips that may get miniature smart drones off the ground. In…
Aerospace engineers believe that fuel consumption can be reduced by embedding an aircraft’s engines into the boundary layer and ingesting the airflow. Car, truck, train,…
Engineers at MIT and NASA have developed a new kind of bendable, “morphing” wing that could enable more efficient plane manufacturing and flight. When the…
Using carbon nanotube “stitches,” aerospace engineers from MIT have found a way to strengthen composites, helping make airplane frames lighter and more damage-resistant. The newest…
Using a peer-review process that evaluated innovativeness and technical viability, NASA has selected eight technology proposals for investment that have the potential to transform future…
NASA’s aeronautical innovators are preparing to put in the sky an array of new experimental aircraft, each intended to carry on the legacy of demonstrating…
NASA’s award of a contract for the preliminary design of a “low boom” flight demonstration aircraft brings the return of supersonic passenger air travel is…
New research from MIT shows that stopping at the moon may be the best option for a piloted mission to Mars, revealing that fueling up…
NASA scientists believe distributed electric propulsion is set to usher in a new era of aviation, allowing engineers to do things that they have wanted…