Airbus autopilot "Flying Taxi" Vahana completed its first test flight

Airbus announced that its Vahana electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft completed its first test flight on January 31 local time. During the test, the full-size aircraft flew 5 meters off the ground and landed safely, but the automatic flight lasted only 53 seconds.

The first flight was completed at 8:52 am Pacific Time on January 31 at Pendleton UAS Range, Oregon. The first flight was carried out in the fully automated driving mode with a flight altitude of 5 meters and then safely landed. The next day, Vahana successfully completed its second test flight. Airbus said it wants to build an autonomous multi-rotor eVTOL fleet to make air commutes in a future-jammed city. Launched in 2016, the project was launched by Airbus subsidiary A³ in Silicon Valley. Since then, the company regularly releases new developments about the aircraft, including a user experience concept video.

In fact, Airbus planned to make its first flight, called Alpha One at the end of last year, but flight testing was delayed until the end of January as the company relocated the flight test center from California to Pendleton, Oregon. A³ previously said it will launch a production version of Alpha One in 2020. According to the information provided by A3, Alpha One's main specifications are as follows: 20.3 feet wide, 18.7 feet long, 9.2 feet high and 1642 pounds heavy. We are all looking forward to more RC Quadcopter Spares provided so the RC aircraft industry will be developed in a faster and healthier way.

"Our goal has always been to design and manufacture a single-seat electric vertical take-off and landing pilot to meet the growing demand for city travel," said Zach Lovering, Vahana Project Leader. "We have celebrated this huge achievement in aviation innovation, and in less than two years Vahana has completed a conceptual drawing on a napkin and successfully completed its first flight and our team is very grateful for the support from our A3 and Airbus families as well as our partners including MTSI and the Pendleton UAV system base. "

Vahana is a research and development project for the A3 Innovation Center at Airbus Outpost in Silicon Valley. The A3 Innovation Center is able to acquire unique talent and ideas, discover new opportunities for cooperation and execute quickly. Vahana aims to meet the growing needs of urban transport by harnessing the latest technologies in electric propulsion, energy storage and machine vision, all-in-one personal flight.