Airbus & Audi reveal electric air taxi CityAirbus

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As part of the Urban Air Mobility project, Airbus has now presented the air taxi CityAirbus in the Audi town of Ingolstadt. The electric aircraft with eight rotors takes off and lands vertically and will be able to transport up to four passengers. The model still has its maiden flight ahead of it.

With the words “maiden flight soon” Airbus announced via Twitter that this is only a matter of time. The maiden flight is planned at the airport in the German city of Manching near Ingolstadt – about 60 km away from the development site at Airbus Helicopters in Donauwörth.

The development of the CityAirbus is embedded in the EU initiative Urban Air Mobility, which is to conduct practical studies on the use of aircraft for urban mobility. It is not yet clear which concrete pilot projects will be launched in the course of the initiative. However, it is clear that a total of 14 continental European cities are participating – including Ingolstadt, Hamburg, Toulouse, Antwerp, Brussels and Geneva.

This also explains why Airbus has now presented its air taxi in Ingolstadt. In the not too distant future, electric air taxis will be operated manually or autonomously in the city. The pilot project in the Bavarian city is supported by the Ingolstadt Technical University, the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt and various companies, including Audi.

Back in 2018, Airbus and Audi already presented an autonomous concept for horizontal and vertical e-mobility at the Geneva Motor Show under the name Pop.Up Next. It consists of a two-seater passenger cabin that can be coupled with either a car module or a flight module.

Since then air taxis have begun taking off. Airbus rival Boeing for example recently presented their take on a passenger VTOL. Aurora Flight Sciences, an aviation taxi developer acquired by Boeing in 2017 and now operating as a subsidiary of the aviation company developed the concept and is one of a number of firms that have partnered with Uber in an effort to develop a network of “flying taxis”. These are supposed to operate on the ride-hailing company’s forthcoming Uber Elevate product, planned for launch in 2023.

deutschland.de

Additional reporting by Nora Manthey.

3 Comments

about „Airbus & Audi reveal electric air taxi CityAirbus“
Markus
13.03.2019 um 11:29
This is so ridiculously unfinished concept...You think I will accept the noise of it over my head over my house and last whole day long?? Nobody will! These guys are just unbelievable, amazing how much corporation money is being throw´d strait trough the window...
Tony Howard
16.12.2019 um 18:26
What are you going to do about it? It's a lot quieter than conventional jet aircraft. I live close to a military base where Harrier's and other military aircraft are stationed and during training days and depending on the wind direction and which runway they use fly over my house all day and occasionally at night. Talk about loud. What about people who live near major airports? The future is electric electric and who knows what other breakthroughs are possible after that and when that happens aircraft will be much quieter. A lot of people complain about the noise but have no problem boarding an airplane when they want to travel somewhere. I hope you have have a lot of money and power if you plan on putting a stop to it.
Just Passing Through
27.08.2019 um 17:52
You might have missed the word 'Electric' there...

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