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Aeronautics Research

With more than a century of aviation research heritage, NASA’s aeronautical innovators have developed technology through the years that makes air travel safer, faster, and more sustainable. Their contributions are so widespread that every U.S. airplane and air traffic control tower has something from NASA built right in.

Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate Graphic. It's an image of the seat back on an airplane

NASA Aeronautics Technical Excellence

Presented here are a collection of hand-picked stories that showcase the aviation technology NASA is working on — or has worked on and turned over to others for use in the National Airspace System. This page will be updated with new content at the beginning of each month.

NASA Tests Technology Offering Potential Fuel Savings for Commercial Aviation
4 min read

NASA researchers successfully completed a high-speed taxi test of a scale model of a design that could make future aircraft…

Article
NASA Develops Blockchain Technology to Enhance Air Travel Safety and Security 
3 min read

Through a drone flight test at NASA’s Ames Research Center, researchers tested a blockchain-based system for protecting flight data. The…

Article
NASA, Boeing Test How to Improve Performance of Longer, Narrower Aircraft Wings 
5 min read

The airliner you board in the future could look a lot different from today’s, with longer, thinner wings that provide…

Article
NASA Works with Boeing, Other Collaborators Toward More Efficient Global Flights 
3 min read

Picture this: You’re just about done with a transoceanic flight, and the tracker in your seat-back screen shows you approaching…

Article
NASA Demonstrates Safer Skies for Future Urban Air Travel 
2 min read

NASA is helping shape the future of urban air travel with a new simulation that will manage how electric air…

Article
NASA Software Raises Bar for Aircraft Icing Research 
4 min read

When flying in certain weather conditions, tiny freezing water droplets floating in the air can pose a risk to aircraft.…

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NASA’s X-59 Completes First Flight, Prepares for More Flight Testing
5 min read

After years of design, development, and testing, NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft took to the skies for the first…

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NASA Tests Tools to Assess Drone Safety Over Cities
2 min read

A future with advanced air mobility aircraft populating the skies will require the U.S. to implement enhanced preflight planning that…

Article
NASA Tests Research Aircraft to Improve Air Taxi Flight Controls
4 min read

Flying the friendly skies may one day include time-saving trips in air taxis to get from point A to point…

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NASA Uses Wind Tunnel to Test Advanced Air Mobility Aircraft Wing
3 min read

The advanced air mobility industry is currently working to produce novel aircraft ranging from air taxis to autonomous cargo drones,…

Article
NASA Tests Mixed Reality Pilot Simulation in Vertical Motion Simulator
3 min read

Commercial companies and government agencies are increasingly pursuing a more immersive and affordable alternative to conventional displays currently used in…

Article
NASA Tech to Measure Heat, Strain in Hypersonic Flight
4 min read

A NASA system designed to measure temperature and strain on high-speed vehicles is set to make its first flights at…

Article

Other Aeronautics topics

Artist illustration of the X-59 in flight over a surbuban neighborhood.

Research about flying faster than the speed of sound.

Aerospace Cognitive Engineering Lab Rapid Automation Test Environment; (ACEL-RATE) in N262 showing out-the-window views of San Francisco for UAM UTM Ride Quality Simulation project.

Stories about pioneering the frontiers of 21st century flight.

The Moog SureFly aircraft hovers above Cincinnati Municipal Airport during an acoustic hover test.

All about new ways to get from here to there in the air.

In this image, captured using data from a wind-tunnel test, the red and orange areas represent higher drag, and the green and bl

Learn about research to make aviation more sustainable.

Airplane outside it's gate at the airport.

Read about how NASA is opening up the sky for all.

F-15s on Armstrong Ramp

Information about NASA's fleet of aircraft.

Sunset view of the DC-8 parked on the tarmac is getting inspected.

News about using NASA aircraft to better understand our world.