There have been remote-controlled flying machines for use indoors that utilize mylar balloons for hobbyists for years. Typically these balloons utilize helium to float and battery-powered propellers ...

German engineering firm Festo has created this flying manta ray. Dubbed the Air_ray, it’s a balloon made of an aluminum-vaporised “PET foil”. Inflated with helium, the Air_ray’s propulsion system is a ...

A Youtuber has built a 27-foot-long experimental blimp that uses hot air instead of ...

Join Cindy Putman and discover how things move through the air. Join us as we discover how propulsion works and explore the amazing ways things move through the air!

This involves metamaterial plates or 3D hollow geometries (e.g., cones, spheres, or rocket shapes) with porous sidewalls that act as Knudsen pumps: light (typically sunlight) is absorbed on one side, ...

This illustration shows a high-altitude balloon ascending into the upper atmosphere. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab/Michael Lentz Sending an observatory into space is ...

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab celebrated another milestone on Halloween day, Monday, Oct. 31: it’s 86th birthday. In 1936, seven young men drove out to a dry canyon wash in the San Gabriel Mountain ...

A middle school class learns how to use a Scientific Balloon Solutions pico balloon. Credit: Scientific Balloon Solutions A small, globe-trotting balloon declared “missing in action” by an ...

If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in ...