Jon Kelvey

 

Jon Kelvey is a writer and freelance journalist focusing on science, health and aerospace.

Hybrid Air Vehicles’ prototype AirLander 10 airship embarks on a test flight over Cardington, England, in August 2016. The company hopes to have production models flying in 2025.

Airships Rise Again

Zero emissions and a million pounds of lift renew the appeal of these century-old giants.

Just before deployment on May 24, 2019, the first 60 Starlink test satellites rest in a stack before separation from the Falcon 9 second stage. There is no dispenser mechanism; as one SpaceX controller put it, “they slowly fan out like a deck of cards into space.”

SpaceX Wants to Conquer the Internet

But can Starlink overcome the ghosts of satellite constellations past?

At Wind Tunnel 9 in White Oak, Maryland, engineers Joe Norris (left) and Jon Lafferty conduct basic research on Hypersonic Technology Vehicle-1. HTV-1 did not fly, but its successor, HTV-2, did, boosted to Mach 20 in 2010 and 2011.

Today’s Hypersonic Weapons Could Lead to Tomorrow’s Mach 5 Airliners

Into the future at 6,000 MPH

Maybe the future has finally arrived. AeroMobil is targeting the luxury market with its flying prototype, AeroMobil 3.0 (seen here during 2015 flight tests). Sticker price: more than $1 million.

So That’s What Flying Cars Are For

A new business model may make them real this time.

Lining up on approach to London Heathrow Airport is the pathway out of what may be the world’s most expensive traffic jam: tens of airplanes flying holding patterns nearby, waiting for their turn in line.

Air Traffic Control Enters the 21st Century

NextGen looks to overhaul navigation and communication in U.S. airspace.

A bird passes in front of a partial solar eclipse over New Zealand in 2011.

How to Be a Two-Minute Scientist on Eclipse Day

With the first total eclipse over the U.S. since smartphones became ubiquitous, amateur researchers will be participating along with the pros.

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