Low and slow to high and fast marks flight tests
By Jessica Peterson, Andy Freeborn and Karl Garman|December 2024
The Flight Testing Technical Committee focuses on testing of aircraft, spacecraft, missiles or other vehicles in their natural environments.
Electric vertical takeoff and landing technology saw significant advancement globally, with numerous flight tests. In April, BETA Technologies of Vermont achieved its first piloted transition flight with its ALIA 250 in New York, demonstrating a shift from vertical and horizontal wing-borne flight. In May, Joby Aviation of California announced the completion of 1,500 flights with its two preproduction prototypes. In June, Joby conducted a 523-mile (842-kilometer) flight with a new hydrogen-electric demonstrator, demonstrating emission-free flight. Also in June, Archer Aviation’s Midnight eVTOL demonstrated the transition from vertical to wing-borne flight. Days later, China-based EHang performed its first autonomous eVTOL flight in Saudi Arabia. And in August, Germany-based Volocopter began crewed eVTOL tests at a vertiport testbed in France.
In the field of supersonic flight, NASA and prime contractor Lockheed Martin formally debuted the X-59 demonstrator, with which they plan to gather community response data about quieter supersonic flight. In March, Hermeus of Atlanta unveiled its remotely piloted Quarterhorse Mk 1 test aircraft, a step toward producing the world’s first reusable hypersonic plane. Late in March, Stratolaunch’s TA-1 reached supersonic speeds during the design’s first powered flight. Also that month, Boom Supersonic’s XB-1 demonstrator made its inaugural flight, the first of 10 planned subsonic flights before the demonstrator goes supersonic.
Beyond these developments, the aviation sector saw other first flight events. In August, Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. completed the first flight of a G400 luxury jet in Georgia, marking the start of its test program. The same month, California-based Scaled Composites’ Model 437 Vanguard, a crewed prototype of a low-cost attritable aircraft with a Pratt & Whitney 535 engine, made its inaugural flight.
Aerospace innovation continued at the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School. In May, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall flew in the artificial intelligence-controlled X-62A VISTA over Edwards Air Force Base in California, with a safety pilot in the back seat. In this flight, X-62A, equipped with machine learning-based autonomy as part of a DARPA program, demonstrated the ability to perform complex tactical maneuvers autonomously while live agents responded in real time to simulated threats. Also in May, students from the Space Test Course at the Test Pilot School for the first time operated a satellite in orbit from Edwards. Achieved through a partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Space Vehicles Directorate, this milestone was a step toward advancing space test operations and multidomain education.
Finally, commercial space conducted some notable flights. In May, Blue Origin’s New Shepard resumed crewed suborbital flights after a nearly two-year hiatus. Among the six-person crew was Ed Dwight, a former Air Force test pilot who in the 1960s was the first Black astronaut candidate. This was Dwight’s first spaceflight. In June, SpaceX achieved the first intact reentry and splashdown of a Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage during the design’s fourth flight from Boca Chica, Texas. Also in June, a Boeing CST-100 Starliner launched from Florida with two astronauts for the design’s first crewed flight to the International Space Station. Starliner experienced helium leaks and thruster degradation while en route, so NASA decided to return the capsule unoccupied in September, and plans to return the astronauts in February on a SpaceX Crew Dragon. Days after Starliner’s launch, Virgin Galactic made the final flight with its VSS Unity, the first commercial spaceplane to reach space. The company is now focused on developing its new Delta-class vehicles.
These achievements across aviation and space underscore a transformative period in flight testing, promising even greater advancements and innovations in the years to come.
Contributors: William Childress and James Sergeant
