Airbus has unveiled a fully electric flying taxi prototype, ahead of a planned maiden flight later this year.
The CityAirbus NextGen eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle) has a wingspan of approximately 12m, is designed for an 80km range, and could reach a cruise speed of 120 km/h, “making it perfectly suited for operations in major cities for a variety of missions,” according to the European aerospace giant.
According to previous reports, the eight-propeller aircraft will have room for one pilot and three passengers.
Airbus is the latest entrant to a sector already crowded with prototypes, with start-ups including Vertical Aerospace in Bristol, and Lilium and Volocopter in Germany. Other prominent names to have released eVTOL concepts include Bell and Aston Martin.
The form factor has received significant attention in the last 10 years, but the sheer amount of publicity and marketing claims is yet to translate into any meaningful deployment or transformation of transport systems. That could change as more projects come to fruition and regulators accelerate efforts to safely integrate them into public airspace, but it remains to be seen which – if any – vehicles will be successful.
The NextGen unveiling coincided with the opening of the new CityAirbus test centre in Donauwörth, Germany, which will be dedicated to testing eVTOL systems. The centre, part of long-term investment in Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), began operations with the NextGen’s power-on in December 2023. It will be used for remaining tests before the prototype’s maiden flight, covering the electric motors and other systems such as flight controls and avionics.
“Rolling out CityAirbus NextGen for the very first time is an important and very real step that we are taking towards advanced air mobility and our future product and market,” said Balkiz Sarihan, head of urban air mobility at Airbus.
The company said it is also “expanding its global network and partnerships to create a unique ecosystem that will foster a successful and viable AAM market”. It recently signed a partnership agreement with aviation company LCI to focus on the development of ‘partnership scenarios and business models’.
Extracted from IMechE website, read more here