Texas-based 'hop-on' jet service offers exclusive eclipse flight flown by NASA pilot

we're soaring

The special two-hour flight will fly the path of totality during its peak shadow casting, led by former NASA astronaut and JSX pilot Bill Gregory. Photo via JSX

With Texas set to be the prime location for the Great North American Solar Eclipse, airlines are lining up to offer the best vantage point and that includes JSX: The private carrier is offering a once-in-a-lifetime in-flight experience to 12 people, to join a specialty flight from Dallas on Monday, April 8.

This special two-hour flight will fly the path of totality during its peak shadow casting, led by former NASA astronaut and JSX pilot Bill Gregory. Those onboard will receive eclipse viewing glasses for safe solar viewing, themed Solar Eclipse cocktails, and complimentary sun protection.

Flight 4824 will depart on April 8 from JSX’s dedicated hangar at Dallas-Love Field at 1 pm. Every occupant will get their own dedicated window seat for the best chance of viewing the total solar eclipse as the plane travels within the path of totality, circling Dallas, and landing back at the hangar by 3 pm.

Space enthusiasts looking for a unique vantage point from 30,000 feet up can enter the sweepstakes online now until March 14, for a free chance to view the solar phenomenon with a guest.

In addition to the sweepstakes, the hop-on air carrier is partnering with Dallas Love Field’s Frontiers of Flight Museum to identify two children in the local Texas community with an interest in STEM to experience the rare spectacle with a guardian.

Previously serving as NASA’s Space Shuttle Endeavour pilot and having completed 262 orbits and traveling nearly seven million miles in space, JSX’s Bill Gregory will navigate the solar eclipse with expert commentary throughout the flight. Before joining the JSX team, Bill also served as a former U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel and has received numerous accolades for his professional achievements including the NASA Space Flight Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, and more.

“With Dallas taking claim as the biggest city in the path of totality, we are thrilled to make this ultra premium and rare viewing opportunity a reality via JSX,” says CEO Alex Wilcox. “We’re committed to prioritizing safe, simple, joy-filled flights for all and are ecstatic to be able to provide travelers with the ultimate JSX experience in tandem with this once-in-a-lifetime celestial event.”

Other airlines offering special eclipse flights include Southwest Airlines and Delta.

JSX is the flight experience that offers convenience at an accessible price point, from checking in at a dedicated hangar 20 minutes prior to departure to flying on a sleek 30-seat jet, to business class legroom, frictionless security, free high speed Starlink Wi-Fi, and in-seat power.

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

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Behold the future JSX Aura Aero Era 19-seat hybrid-electric aircraft. Rendering courtesy of JSX

Texas company lines up hundreds electric-hybrid planes for takeoff

flying green

Hop-on jet service JSX is soaring into a more eco-friendly future with plans to acquire more than 300 hybrid-electric airplanes.

The Dallas-based air carrier revealed in a release that they'll add up to 332 small hybrid planes in 2028, allowing them to connect to smaller, underserved communities around the country.

"Following the Biden Administration’s call last week for the aviation industry to cut carbon emissions ... JSX expects to take delivery of its first hybrid-electric aircraft in 2028, shepherding the next chapter of regional aviation as the first in its category to adopt this impactful cutting-edge renewable energy technology," JSX says in the release. "While commercial airlines can serve just 480 airports in the United States, JSX’s small community-friendly Part 135 and Part 380 Public Charter operations, combined with the exceptional performance capabilities of these hybrid-electric airplanes, enables service opportunities to thousands of federally funded airports otherwise inaccessible to people who can’t own or charter an entire aircraft."

The new cutting-edge airplanes will come from manufacturers Electra, Aura Aero, and Heart Aerospace and will include:

  • up to 82 Electra eSTOL 9-seat aircraft (32 firm orders and 50 options)
  • up to 150 Aura Aero Era 19-seat planes (50 firm orders and 100 options)
  • up to 100 Heart Aerospace ES-30 30-seat planes (50 firm orders and 50 options)

JSX currently operates about 50 semi-private planes configured with 30 seats, from private terminals in major cities including Dallas (Love Field) and Houston (Hobby Airport), and in "leisure" markets such as Destin, Florida and the Bahamas. The company recently shifted part of its operational focus to small markets (such as Midland-Odessa).

JSX promises a "no crowds, no lines, and no fuss" travel experience, allowing customers to check in and "hop on" just 20 minutes before departure. The carrier recently came under fire from federal regulators and major commercial airlines for its looser security regulations that more closely resemble those of charter providers than those of domestic airlines.

JSX is now doubling down on its pledge to service underserved cities, declaring in the release, "JSX has mastered the trifecta of marketing, selling, and operating attainable by-the-seat public charter air service to numerous small communities that have no other regular air service."


The future Heart Aerospace ES-30 30-seat hybrid-electric aircraft in JSX livery. Rendering courtesy of JSX


The new smaller, electric-hybrid aircraft will allow JSX to "dramatically lower the cost of its service and open new flight options at over 2,000 U.S. airports," they say, "stimulating local economies and empowering regional mobility and connectivity for communities devoid of regular air service today."

They point specifically to Del Rio, Texas, which has lost all commercial air service since the pandemic, they say, as an example of a small city that now can be reconnected to major cities in a cost-effective, sustainable way.

"The favorable operating economics of the Aura Aero Era, Heart ES-30, and Electra eSTOL can create thousands of new and expanded air travel options across the United States without the need for government subsidy," the company says.

In a statement, JSX CEO and cofounder Alex Wilcox adds, "As the network airlines order ever-larger aircraft it is inevitable that more and more small markets will be abandoned. Electra, Aura Aero, and Heart Aerospace are visionary organizations that share in JSX’s commitment to serving smaller communities, working together with us to weave sustainable regional air travel back into the fabric of American commerce and freedom of movement.”

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

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Rice student startup lands $1.85M to launch medical drone network

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Students at Rice University have developed a medical cargo drone transport system to help deliver sensitive medical supplies and improve mobile healthcare efforts.

Haast Autonomous is the brainchild of graduating seniors Ege Halac, Jason Chen and Santiago Brent, who got their venture idea off the ground with help from the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Lilie) Summer Venture Studio. The founders have developed the prototype at Rice’s Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen (OEDK) with fellow Rice researchers Felix Hasson, Ethan Javedan, Kenna Sanders and Caden Schmidt.

The startup has raised $1.85 million in pre-seed funding, according to Rice. The founders plan to focus on Haast full-time following graduation. They said they aim to launch pilot trials in 2027 and head to market later that year.

“We need better alternatives for a fast, safe and on-demand system of transport for life-critical cargo,” Halac said in a news release from Rice.

The Haast team has developed a custom aircraft with software that manages dispatch, routes, and chain of custody to assist in how materials move between sites in centralized medical systems. Generally, the transportation of medical supplies and materials between facilities and points of care relies on ground shipping or expensive air transport.

Haast Autonomous’ aircraft can take off and land vertically, and is designed around a mission profile of 50 to 62 miles. It can carry a payload of at least 5 pounds, with future versions intended to scale up in size. It also includes a built-in payload bay that regulates temperature, pressure, vibration and tilt to protect sensitive contents such as patient samples, antivenom or poisoning kits and radioligands or other therapies, according to Rice.

At first, the company envisioned the mission to be centered around transplants, but saw the product being best suited for a variety of operations.

“What we realized is that the platform we are building is suited for medicine, but it really underlies a much larger problem of mission-critical transport across industries,” Brent added in the news release. “We are building the fastest, most secure logistics chain for the world’s most sensitive cargo.”

Haast Autonomous was recognized at the 2026 Oshman Engineering Design Showcase and Competition, where it won Best Aerospace or Transportation Technology. It also performed well in the 2026 Napier Rice Launch Challenge.

In the future, Haast Autonomous plans to deploy a fleet of aircraft. The software will be designed to assist hospitals in requesting flights and tracking deliveries in real time.

“The drone is only part of the solution,” Chen also added in the release. “What matters is moving something from point A to point B in a way that fits into how hospitals already operate.”

Houston scientist wins prestigious Pew Scholar award for brain cancer research

standout scholar

Christina Tringides, an assistant professor of materials science and nanoengineering at Rice University, is one of 21 scientists to win a prestigious Pew Biomedical Scholar award.

She is the first faculty member from Rice to win the distinction, which provides $300,000 over four years for advances in biomedicine, according to the university. The awards are granted to researchers who are in the first few years at the assistant professor level.

In Tringides’ case, the funding will support her innovative new method of modeling glioblastoma, a common and extremely aggressive form of brain cancer. Thanks to producing its own blood supply, glioblastoma spreads quickly, weaving tendrils of blighted tissue throughout the brain. Because of this, surgery is difficult and conventional therapies ineffective.

Understanding the way glioblastoma spreads is crucial to the search for a cure. Tringides is using hydrogels that mimic the brain’s extracellular matrix. Using cultures and a microscopic labyrinth, her team can see how the cancer spreads, bonds with neurons and changes cell wall activity. Essentially, Tringides has devised an intelligence test for tumors in hopes of learning how to outsmart them.

“As cancer crawls through the maze, we can look at how it is interacting with the neurons more and more, and measure how electrical activity is changing as a result,” she said in a news release from Rice.

Examining how cancer cells grow can reveal which conditional changes slow them down. Finding ways to alter the structure of brain matter in a way that makes it inhospitable to the cancer could lead to therapies that would impede growth or even reverse it. Using her custom-made ersatz brain maze makes it easier to observe changes than it would be in a patient’s brain.

“Imaging synapses is time-intensive ⎯ it can involve large data files that are hard to visualize, but if we know that the only place where we might have a synapse is this tiny 1-by-4-by-10 micron channel, it makes it much faster and reliable to image them,” Tringides said.

Born in Ames, Iowa, Tringides received her doctorate in biophysics from Harvard before joining Rice in 2024 through a Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) recruitment award.

Her research was also one of the first four projects to receive research awards through the Rice Brain Institute and TMC Neuro Collaboration Seed Grant Program.

Texas residents earn 11th highest income in U.S., says 2026 study

Money Matters

A new WalletHub study comparing income disparities across America has ranked Texas residents No. 11 on the list of states with the highest earning residents in the nation.

The report, "States Where People Have the Highest Income (2026)," analyzed U.S. Census Bureau income data in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The report evaluated the average annual income of the top five percent, the median annual household income, and the average annual income of the bottom 20 percent of residents in every state, all adjusted for the cost of living.

The report's data revealed the top five percent of Texans, the highest earners, make $520,378 on average yearly after adjusting for the cost of living. That's the seventh-highest income among the top five percent of earners nationwide.

Meanwhile, the median annual income of a Texas household is just under $76,000. The bottom 20 percent of Texas residents make $17,651 a year, the report found.

For additional context, the latest data from the Federal Reserve shows an American household's median yearly income is about $83,700. WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo also found that the highest earning 10 percent of individuals in the U.S. earn over 12 times more than those in the lowest-earning 10 percent, based on the latest Census data.

"By measuring the income of various percentiles against a state's median income, we can better identify where income disparities are more prevalent, which could help us better understand why residents of certain states struggle more to make ends meet," said Lupo.

Virginia is the state where residents earn the highest income in the U.S., WalletHub said. Based on the report's findings, the top five percent of Virginians make $545,097 on average per year after adjusting for the cost of living. The median annual income of a Virginia household comes out to $95,339, and the bottom 20 percent of residents make $19,671 annually on average.

Conversely, West Virginia is the state where people have the lowest income in the U.S. A West Virginia household makes a median annual income of $56,610, the third-lowest nationally, and the bottom 20 percent of residents make $13,260 on average per year, which is the fifth-lowest in the nation. The top five percent of West Virginians make $372,218 on average per year.

The top 10 states where residents have the highest income are:

  • No. 1 – Virginia
  • No. 2 – New York
  • No. 3 – New Jersey
  • No. 4 – Washington
  • No. 5 – Connecticut
  • No. 6 – Utah
  • No. 7 – Colorado
  • No. 8 – Minnesota
  • No. 9 – Illinois
  • No. 10 – Massachusetts

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This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

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