NASA Aeronautics

Official National Aeronautics and Space Administration Website

  • NASA Completes First Flight of Laminar Flow Scaled Wing Design

    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. 29 at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, using one of the agency’s F-15B research jets. The NASA-designed, 40-inch Crossflow Attenuated Natural Laminar Flow (CATNLF) wing model was attached to the aircraft’s underside vertically, like a fin.  The flight lasted about 75 minutes, during […]

  • ARMD Research Solicitations (Updated Feb. 4)

    THIS PAGE WAS UPDATED ON FEBRUARY 4, 2026 This Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) solicitations page compiles the opportunities to collaborate with NASA’s aeronautical innovators and/or contribute to their research to enable new and improved air transportation systems. Most opportunities to participate in research are officially announced through the Web-based NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated […]

  • NASA Armstrong Contributions Propel Artemis, Deep Space Innovation

    NASA is leveraging expertise, capabilities, and partnerships across its centers to make Artemis campaign and deep space exploration safer, more reliable, and efficient. At NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, contributions include technical leadership, unique flight-testing capabilities, and management of a key technology program that advances critical exploration concepts. Artemis II is an […]

  • NASA Aims to Advance Hypersonic Flight Testing with New Awards 

    While NASA is working with U.S. aviation to explore commercial supersonic technologies, the agency is also looking forward to an even faster era of flight – one of vehicles that can fly hypersonic, or five times the speed of sound. And to further that vision, NASA has issued two awards for studies into vehicle concepts.  […]

  • NASA Science Flights Venture to Improve Severe Winter Weather Warnings

    A team of NASA scientists deployed on an international mission designed to better understand severe winter storms. The North American Upstream Feature-Resolving and Tropopause Uncertainty Reconnaissance Experiment, or NURTURE, is an airborne campaign that uses a suite of remote sensing instruments to collect atmospheric data on winter weather with a goal of improving the models […]

  • NASA, GE Aerospace Hybrid Engine System Marks Successful Test 

    To an untrained eye, the aircraft engine sitting outside of a Cincinnati facility in December might have looked like standard hardware. But NASA and GE Aerospace researchers watching the unit fire up for a demonstration knew what they were looking at: a hybrid engine performing at a level that could potentially power an airliner.   It’s something new in the […]

  • NASA Tests Technology Offering Potential Fuel Savings for Commercial Aviation

    NASA researchers successfully completed a high-speed taxi test of a scale model of a design that could make future aircraft more efficient by improving how air flows across a wing’s surface, saving fuel and money. On Jan. 12, the Crossflow Attenuated Natural Laminar Flow (CATNLF) test article reached speeds of approximately 144 mph, marking its […]

  • NASA Chase Aircraft Ensures X-59’s Safety in Flight 

    As NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft continues a series of flight tests over the California high desert in 2026, its pilot will be flying with a buddy closely looking out for his safety.  That colleague will be another test pilot in a separate chase aircraft. His job as chase pilot: keep a careful watch on things as he tracks the […]

  • NASA Develops Blockchain Technology to Enhance Air Travel Safety and Security 

    Through a drone flight test at NASA’s Ames Research Center, researchers tested a blockchain-based system for protecting flight data. The system aims to keep air traffic management safe from disruption and protect data transferred between aircraft and ground stations from being intercepted or manipulated. 

  • NASA Adds Two F-15 Aircraft to Support Supersonic Flight Research

    Two retired U.S. Air Force F-15 jets have joined the flight research fleet at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, transitioning from military service to a new role enabling breakthrough advancements in aerospace. The F-15s will support supersonic flight research for NASA’s Flight Demonstrations and Capabilities project, including testing for the Quesst mission’s […]