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.
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’s X-59 experimental aircraft is preparing for its second flight, a step that will set the pace for more flight testing in…
Editor’s note: This advisory was updated on March 20, 2026, to reflect a new time for the news conference and…
NASA completed the first flight test of a scale-model wing designed to improve laminar flow, reducing drag and lowering fuel costs for future commercial aircraft. The flight took place Jan.…
To an untrained eye, the aircraft engine sitting outside of a Cincinnati facility in December might have looked like standard hardware.…
NASA researchers successfully completed a high-speed taxi test of a scale model of a design that could make future aircraft…
Through a drone flight test at NASA’s Ames Research Center, researchers tested a blockchain-based system for protecting flight data. The…
The airliner you board in the future could look a lot different from today’s, with longer, thinner wings that provide…
Picture this: You’re just about done with a transoceanic flight, and the tracker in your seat-back screen shows you approaching…
NASA is helping shape the future of urban air travel with a new simulation that will manage how electric air…
When flying in certain weather conditions, tiny freezing water droplets floating in the air can pose a risk to aircraft.…
After years of design, development, and testing, NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft took to the skies for the first…
A future with advanced air mobility aircraft populating the skies will require the U.S. to implement enhanced preflight planning that…
