Most airliners still look like a tube with wings bolted onto it. That shape has stayed almost unchanged since the Boeing 707 flew in 1957. A double delta blended wing body aircraft breaks that pattern entirely, merging the wing and fuselage into one continuous lifting surface. The concept has moved from wind tunnels to real...

The decade of 1960 marked a very important period of space exploration as it saw the launch of the first satellite, Sputnik I, by the USSR officially beginning human adventure into uncharted territory outside the Earth. “Space” as we know it has the capacity to awe, frighten, and tremble us: “Surrounded by infinite space, and...

To triumph over the limitation of accessing space, any air-cum-space craft requires a complex mesh of systems that are not limited to propulsion, thermal protection, life support, navigation, and control. As opposed to aircraft using atmospheric air as oxidizers and only having to carry fuel, spacecraft need to carry their own oxidizers (in addition to...