At the company’s first Airbus Summit on “Pioneering Sustainable Aerospace”, Airbus revealed the next generation CityAirbus urban air mobility solution. The fully-electric four passenger CityAirbus is equipped with fixed wings, a V-shaped tail and eight propellers.
On Tuesday (September 21, 2021), Airbus announced plans for a new CityAirbus urban air mobility (UAM) aircraft at the company’s first Airbus Summit on “Pioneering Sustainable Aviation.” The fully-electric vehicle features fixed wings, a V-shaped tail and eight electrically powered propellers, as part of its distributed propulsion system. The CityAirbus NextGen UAM is designed to carry up to four passengers with zero emissions to a range of 80 km and cruise speeds of 120 km/hr. The vehicle is also being designed to be noise-friendly with fly over sound levels below 65 dB(A) and below 70 dB(A) during landing. Additionally, the vehicle meets the highest certification standards, EASA SC-VTOL Enhanced Category.
CityAirbus NextGen Urban Air Mobility Rendering - Image Gallery Courtesy of Airbus
In Tuesday’s announcement, Airbus Helicopters’ CEO, Bruno Even, said,
“We are on a quest to co-create an entirely new market that sustainably integrates urban air mobility into the cities while addressing environmental and social concerns. Airbus is convinced that the real challenges are as much about urban integration, public acceptance, and automated air traffic management, as about vehicle technology and business models. We build on all of the capabilities to deliver a safe, sustainable, and fully integrated service to society.
“We have learned a lot from the test campaigns with our two demonstrators, CityAirbus and Vahana. The CityAirbus NextGen combines the best from both worlds with the new architecture striking the right balance between hover and forward flight. The prototype is paving the way for certification expected around 2025.”
Airbus is benefitting from years of research and innovation including two electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) demonstrators, sound technology across their product portfolio and decades of experience in aircraft certification. In total, the Vahana and CityAirbus demonstrators have jointly completed 242 flight and ground tests and have flown around 1,000 km. The CityAirbus NextGen is currently in a detailed design phase and the prototype’s first flight is planned for 2023, with certification expected by 2025.
Source: Airbus