The June 2026 issue of Aerospace Testing International is available to view online now!
This issue’s cover story dives deep into how modern NDT and manufacturing techniques are keeping 90-year-old Spitfires not just flying, but stronger than ever. Alongside that, we have a major update on Vertical Aerospace’s high-stakes eVTOL certification race, a candid pre-Farnborough interview with GKN Aerospace’s top leadership, a hard look at the IP battles reshaping the air taxi industry, plus a debrief on the Boeing 787 battery crisis that rewrote the rulebook on lithium-ion certification.
Click the links below to read the articles that interest you most:
Warbird renaissance:
The Spitfire made stronger
Ninety years after its first flight, the Spitfire is being rebuilt to a higher standard than the wartime factories ever achieved. Find out how The Spitfire Factory and Supermarine Aero Engineering are combining original drawings, modern NDT — dye penetrant, magnetic particle inspection, X-ray — and tighter manufacturing tolerances to produce replacement parts that outlast the originals. A fascinating intersection of heritage aviation and cutting-edge inspection technology.
Project Update: Lessons in lift
Can Vertical Aerospace certify the Valo on time?
In April, Vertical Aerospace’s chief test pilot completed the first piloted two-way tiltrotor transition under civil aviation Design Organisation Approval oversight — a landmark moment. But with rivals Joby and Archer pulling ahead in the FAA process, a critical design review due in Q3, and a late-2028 certification target already flagged as under pressure, this is a make-or-break year. We assess where Vertical really stands.
Testing Talk:
GKN Aerospace on drones, additive manufacturing and defence growth
In a pre-Farnborough briefing at the Royal Academy of Engineering, GKN Aerospace CEO Peter Dilnot and CTO Russ Dunn spoke candidly about the company’s strategic pivot. Defence spending is surging across Europe, metal additive manufacturing has finally reached production maturity, and GKN has quietly become the world’s largest independent aerostructures business. We report on what that means for testing, supply chains and the future of aerospace manufacturing.
Air Rights:
The IP dogfight reshaping the eVTOL sector
Trade secret theft allegations, patent infringement claims, US International Trade Commission investigations — the eVTOL industry has become as litigious as it is innovative. With Joby suing Archer, Archer counter-suing Joby, and a separate design patent complaint already filed against Vertical Aerospace, we ask whether IP warfare is a necessary feature of a competitive emerging market, or a dangerous distraction from the job of actually certifying aircraft.
The Debrief:
How the 787 battery fire shaped certification testing
Two lithium-ion battery failures in nine days grounded every Boeing 787 worldwide in January 2013 — the first full-fleet grounding since the DC-10 in 1979. The root cause wasn’t a single cell failure: it was thermal runaway propagating between cells in a way the original certification process had never considered possible. We revisit what went wrong, how Boeing’s fix was engineered, and why the lessons learned now sit at the heart of every aerospace battery qualification program.
