Aviation | The Verge

Electric air taxis get the green light for test flights in Texas

2026-09-10T12:32:43-04:00

A new federal program to test the feasibility of electric, hybrid-electric, and autonomous aircraft kicks off today in Texas - before the rules governing this new technology have even been finalized.

Earlier this year, the Federal Aviation Administration's Advanced Air Mobility and Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) Integration Pilot Program (eIPP) selected eight state-led projects to serve as some of the first public tests of these new aircraft. The first one kicks off today in Texas, featuring three eVTOL companies: Joby, Beta, and Wisk.

For the next week, these companies will conduct test flights demonstrating future routes …

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Elon Musk broke the FAA — Palantir is picking up the pieces

2026-08-21T11:57:14-04:00

On August 6th, the Minneapolis Air Route Traffic Control Center lost radar and communications for around two hours. The outage disrupted more than 1,100 flights across the center's 330,000 square mile, nine-state airspace sector.

Two days earlier, on August 4th, President Donald Trump departed the White House inside his Marine One military helicopter. As Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) protocol requires, the pilots tried to contact Reagan National Airport to tell them to halt commercial traffic during the flight. But the air traffic controllers never heard the transmission and cleared a different airplane for takeoff - which came clo …

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Joby flexes military muscle with $500 million defense acquisition

2026-08-11T08:12:13-04:00

Joby flight at JFK airport. | Image: The Verge

Joby Aviation announced it was acquiring Dayton, Ohio-based defense firm Resonant Sciences in a $500 million deal, in a bid by the electric aircraft company to expand further into the military industrial complex.

Joby says it expects to finance the deal with $450 million in cash and $50 million in equity. After the deal closes, which is expected in early 2027, Resonant will continue its existing work as Joby's dedicated defense division, the company said. The commercial division will remain focused on air taxis, the first of which are expected to launch later this year.

The deal is the latest example of the fledgling electric aviation in …

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Boeing is selling its air taxi startups to Archer Aviation

2026-08-10T10:00:17-04:00

Boeing is selling three of its electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) subsidiaries to Archer Aviation, in addition to taking an undisclosed stake in the San Jose-based company.

The subsidiares to be acquired by Archer include Wisk Aero, which has been developing an autonomous electric aircraft; SkyGrid, which is building air traffic management systems to be used by urban air taxis; and Insitu, which makes high-altitude drones used by the US Navy. As part of the deal, Boeing and Archer will share technology and Boeing will retain access to Wisk's autonomous flight systems for its current and next-gen commercial and defense projects.

…

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Electric air taxis go to war

2026-07-20T10:45:46-04:00

Electric aviation is still in its infancy, but manufacturers are already looking beyond mere air taxi trips across cities. Today, one of the leading air taxi startups, San Jose-based Archer Aviation, unveiled a new aircraft it co-developed with defense technology company Anduril - though the platform is designed for both military and commercial uses, the companies said.

The new aircraft looks like a cross between Archer's Midnight air taxi and a more established military vertical takeoff and landing aircraft like a V-22 Osprey. Anduril, which was founded by Palmer Luckey, unveiled the new variant, called Thunder, on Monday at the Farnborou …

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United flight forced to turn around because of a Bluetooth speaker name

2026-05-31T11:50:02-04:00

An hour in flight UA236 returned to Newark. | Screenshot: The Verge

United flight 236 from Newark to Palma de Mallorca on Saturday night was forced to turn around just an hour after takeoff due to security concerns around a Bluetooth signal. Multiple Redditors claimed to be on the flight and reported that the crew repeatedly requested passengers to turn off their Bluetooth. According to one poster, the crew issued a one-minute warning, saying that two devices were still active.

One Redditor reported flight attendants making comments like, "This little joke is ruining it for everyone."

An archived recording from Air Traffic Control (embedded below) confirms that the root of the issue was the name of a disc …

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American Airlines is getting Starlink Wi-Fi

2026-05-27T07:49:46-04:00

American Airlines planes takeoff and land at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) on May 12, 2026. | Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images

American Airlines is planning to install SpaceX's Starlink Wi-Fi in hundreds of its airplanes, the airline announced today.

American says the deployment will start in the first quarter of 2027, and will span more than 500 aircraft, including its new A321XLR and A321neo planes from Airbus. Starlink will join Viastat and SES (previously known as Intelstat) as among the airline's Wi-Fi providers.

American is the latest air carrier to turn to Elon Musk's Starlink for its Wi-Fi needs. Others include United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Lufthansa Group, British Airways, Qatar Airways, Alaska Airlines, and Hawaiian Airlines. Meanwhile, Delta Ai …

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Spirit Airlines shuts down after Trump’s war on Iran doubled jet fuel prices

2026-05-04T05:34:50-04:00

Spirit Airlines planes are parked on the tarmac at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on May 02, 2026 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. | Getty Images

The ultra-low-cost air carrier Spirit Airlines shut down operations after 34 years in business and canceled all flights at 3AM ET on Saturday morning. Its website now redirects to spiritrestructuring.com, instructing fliers not to go to airports, with air traffic control records capturing controllers and pilots signing off to each other as its last flights came in for landings after the shutdown was announced.

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A statement on its website said that for people who purchased tickets directly, "Refunds for tickets purchased by credit card and debit card have been issued, and will be processed by …

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Electric air taxis are finally taking flight — just not with passengers

2026-05-12T13:03:46-04:00

Joby’s electric air taxi at the Lower Manhattan helipad, April 28th, 2026. | Photo: Owen Grove / The Verge

It was the perfect day for an electric air taxi demonstration - albeit one without passengers.

On Monday, an electric aircraft from Joby Aviation took off from JFK Airport for a flight demonstrating the company's future air taxi route to Manhattan. The aircraft - egg-shaped cabin, six tilt-rotor propellers, electric motor - made its way west along the Brooklyn shore before turning north toward the city. Approximately 14 minutes after takeoff, it touched down at the heliport at West 30th Street, completing its historic journey.

You could tell it was a momentous occasion based on the number of references the assembled officials made to the …

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Spirit is broken

2026-05-02T13:53:25-04:00

The bright yellow livery of Spirit Airlines may soon disappear from the skies. The country's seventh-largest airline has been in financial trouble for years: It hasn't turned a profit since 2019 and filed for bankruptcy twice in the last two years. Despite all that, its leaders predicted that the airline could exit bankruptcy and return to profitability as early as 2027. It just needed time and a little stability to do so.

That time may have run out. On Monday, April 20th, Spirit approached the government to ask for a federal bailout. The sudden rise in fuel prices caused by the war in Iran will add an estimated $360 million in unexpected c …

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