A rendering of the mid-air deployment of one of the SkyFall copters. (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory/AeroVironment, Inc.) ...

Historical references to spinning flying machines go back hundreds of years, with evidence like the 12th-century Chinese twirling kite and Leonardo da Vinci's bizarre airscrew contraption of 1483.

Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, have demonstrated that the blades of their ...

Since helicopters appeared some 80 years ago, they’ve used a single high-speed tail rotor to counteract the torque of the main rotor, stabilizing the aircraft in flight. But that rotor is both the key ...

The Ingenuity Mars helicopter has been more successful than anyone dared hope, lasting far, far beyond its originally planned five flights. The little helicopter recently made its 66th flight and has ...