Flying Vehicle Introduced by Airbus; Electric 4-Seater

Airbus introduced its prototype eVTOL (electric vertical and takeoff) vehicle this week, in advance of planned test flights later in the year.

The fixed-wing electric aerial vehicle (EAV) has a 50-mile range and cruise of 75 mph.

The four-seat CityAirbus NextGen vehicle has eight propellers with a wingspan of 39 feet.

“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 EAV is designed for locations in urban and suburban environments.

Airbus has been working on developing the vehicle for some time and had used two eVTOL demonstrators as part of the process. 

While the EAV has an operational automated flight mode, it will first be piloted to guide the vehicle as the urban air mobility market evolves.

The prototypes were designed to fly remotely.

EHang vehicles in China are flown pilotless and Boeing subsidiary Wisk is taking a pilotless EAV approach. 

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has yet to weigh in on the coming trend of automatically flown EAVs.

The CityAirbus introduction coincided with the opening of the CityAirbus test center in Donauwörth, Germany. 

Related:Airbus Flying Taxi Gets Single-Stick Pilot Control

The center is planned to test systems for EAVs and is Airbus’ long-term investment in advanced air mobility (AAM).

Airbus recently signed a partnership agreement with aviation company LCI  to develop partnership scenarios and business models strategy, commercialization and financing.

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