Era

Airbus Racer

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The Airbus Racer is an experimental airframe.

Airbus uses the Racer as a testbed for technology, one of its main focuses is developing an aerodynamic airframe. Aside from a sleek design, it features a pair of box-wing outriggers equipped with additional rotors and a twin-boom tail that forgoes the typical rear rotor setup.

The Airbus team set a goal of reaching a fast cruise speed of 253 mph, which it achieved within two months of the Racer’s first flight. Test pilot Hervé Jammayrac later pushed it up to 260 mph. It achieved its speed in part due to a design that produces a drag coefficient in the same range as Airbus’s smallest models despite its larger size.

A pair of Safran Aneto-1X engines each make 2,500 shp.

Archer Midnight eVTOL

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The company’s Midnight flagship air taxi broke cover in November 2022, sporting 12 rotors mounted along its wings – six dual-blade types at the rear locked in upward configuration plus six five-blade versions to the front capable of tilting for forward flight. Archer was aiming for top speeds of 150 mph (241 km/h) and a per-charge range of 100 miles (161 km).

By early 2023, a Midnight prototype was built and ready start test flights, which began in October. Its first transition from vertical hover to forward flight followed in July of last year, but May 2025 the pilot seat has been empty.

Archer’s five-seat Midnight air taxi rose vertically from the tarmac in the latter half of 2023, following years of testing and tweaking of prototypes like the two-seat Maker demonstrator.

In May 2025 Archer was testing the piloted conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) capabilities of its Midnight aircraft. Archer has released video footage of the first flight of its Midnight eVTOL with a pilot at the controls, though the aircraft rolled down a runway to take off rather than using its rotors to lift it vertically.

With chief test pilot Jeff Greenwood in the cockpit taking the aircraft prototype down a runway and up into the air to “demonstrate the robustness of Midnight’s landing gear” during conventional take-off and landing operations.

Chief Test Pilot Jeff Greenwood at the controls of the Midnight aircraft

The pilot managed to get the eVTOL in CTOL testing mode up to 125 mph (over 200 km/h) and reached a maximum altitude of more than 1,500 ft (~460 m) above ground level.

Archer

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Archer was founded in 2018 by Adam Goldstein and Brett Adcock, and reportedly began flight testing of its electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft systems from 2019 – though was in stealth mode until 2020. Its full-scale two-seat Maker technology demonstrator was unveiled at California’s Hawthorne Airport the following year and made its maiden flight towards the end of 2021.

Chief Test Pilot Jeff Greenwood joined Archer in 2021 after working for Bell Textron and serving in the US Marine Corps for 13 years prior to that.

Sikorsky RaiderX

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The first RaiderX competitive prototype in a hangar at Sikorsky’s West Palm Beach, Florida, facility.

The S-97, in turn, paved the way for the promising RaiderX, which was widely seen as being a potential frontrunner for the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) program, which aimed to supply the Army with a high-speed new-generation scout and attack helicopter. FARA was cancelled early 2024.

Bombardier Global 8000

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Canadian Aerospace company Bombardier has achieved a major milestone as the first production Global 8000 business jet completed its inaugural flight from Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ).

The flight, which took place on May 16, 2025, tested key systems as part of Bombardier’s production flight test protocol. The aircraft took off under the command of pilot Sandro Novelli, with co-pilot Charlie Honey and flight engineer Bhargav Bhavsar. The Global 8000, the fastest business jet in the world.

The Global 8000 represents Bombardier’s next-generation advancement, evolving from the proven performance of the Global 7500. With a top speed of Mach 0.94, it is the fastest civil aircraft since the Concorde. Designed for a range of up to 8,000 nautical miles nonstop.

The Global 8000 is not only fast—it is smooth. Bombardier’s patented Smooth Flex Wing technology reduces turbulence impact.

The cabin design of the Global 8000 includes four true living zones, a private crew rest area, and the longest seated length in its class.

Cabin altitude is held at 2,900 feet while cruising at 41,000 feet—ensuring less fatigue and greater well-being for passengers.