A little white winged pod lifts itself off the ground and glides off into the distance. The whole movement looks effortless. It's like watching Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder - except we're in a nondescript airfield in Germany, not the planet Tatooine.

A light breeze blew against the enormous hangars that dominate the pastoral skyline of Bedfordshire, like Brobdingnagian relics in Gulliver's Travels. "The weather was fine," the post-accident report stated - perfect conditions for the Airlander 10's second test flight, scheduled for Aug. 24, 2016.

The world's largest plane makers are testing a seemingly simple formula to smooth production, cut costs and fatten profits: Make more of the parts that go into their jets themselves.

The New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) is partnering with X-wave Innovations Inc. (XII), a research and development firm specializing in the defense, homeland security, transportation and energy fields, to develop an embedded sensor system for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The solution is capable of measuring the levels of temperature, pressure and strain on various rocket propulsion engine components.

Above Shanghai's skyline, things are eerily quiet: the helicopters and small planes that whir over other cities in the world are hardly ever seen here, or anywhere across China, thanks to decades-old airspace restrictions and a dearth of airstrips and heliports.

The U.S. military branches are free to shoot down or otherwise remove unauthorized drones flying too close to military bases, according to newly declassified Pentagon guidelines.

Wind tunnels were supposed to be put out of work by now.

Market momentum for airfreight is carrying into the summer of 2017 - with rates across 21 major east-west trade lanes up by 1.1 percent, year-over-year, to reach $2.81 per kilogram, according to Drewry's latest East-West Airfreight Price Index.