The Airbus CityAirbus is a multinational project by Airbus Helicopters to produce an electrically-powered

VTOL A vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is one that can take off and land vertically without relying on a runway. This classification can include a variety of types of aircraft including helicopters as well as thrust-vectoring fixed-wi ...

personal air vehicle A personal air vehicle (PAV) is a proposed type of aircraft providing on-demand aviation services. The emergence of this alternative to traditional ground transport methods has been enabled by unmanned aerial vehicle technologies and electric p ...

demonstrator. It is intended for the

air taxi An air taxi is a small commercial aircraft that makes short flights on demand. In 2001 air taxi operations were promoted in the United States by a NASA and aerospace industry study on the potential Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) ...

role, to avoid ground traffic congestion.

Development

The CityAirbus follows other Airbus Urban Air Mobility initiatives: Skyways to deliver packages by

UAV An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controlle ...

s on the National University of Singapore campus, the A³ Vahana single-passenger, self-piloted VTOL aircraft and the A³ Voom on-demand shared helicopter booking service app by

Airbus Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft throughout the world. The company has three divisions: ' ...

. A 2015 feasibility study confirmed the design's operating costs and that it could meet safety requirements. Full-scale testing of the ducted propeller drivetrain was completed in October 2017.

Type certification A type certificate signifies the airworthiness of a particular category of aircraft, according to its manufacturing design (''type design''). It confirms that the aircraft of a new type intended for serial production, is in compliance with applic ...

and commercial introduction are planned for 2023. The '' iron bird'' systems test prototype was completed and powered on in December 2017 on a

test bench A test bench or testing workbench is an environment used to verify the correctness or soundness of a design or model. The term has its roots in the testing of electronic devices, where an engineer would sit at a lab bench with tools for measurem ...

in Taufkirchen,

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, to test the propulsion system chain, flight controls and propeller dynamic loads, verifying the electric, mechanical and thermal dynamics before being installed on the flight demonstrator by mid-2018. The first structural parts for the demonstrator were produced by Airbus Helicopters. The aircraft's first unmanned flight was on 3 May 2019. Manned flights have been planned for 2019. 31 August 2020 the CityAirbus demonstrator moved from

Donauwörth Donauwörth () is a town and the capital of the Donau-Ries district in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. It is said to have been founded by two fishermen where the rivers Danube (Donau) and Wörnitz meet. The city is part of the scenic route called "Roman ...

Manching Manching is a municipality in the district of Pfaffenhofen, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated on the river Paar, 7 km southeast of Ingolstadt. In the late Iron Age, there was a Celtic settlement, the Oppidum of Manching, on the location ...

near

Ingolstadt Ingolstadt (, Austro-Bavarian: ) is an independent city on the Danube in Upper Bavaria with 139,553 inhabitants (as of June 30, 2022). Around half a million people live in the metropolitan area. Ingolstadt is the second largest city in Upper Ba ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

. After 242 flights over in total with the Vahana and CityAirbus demonstrators, Airbus updated the CityAirbus project in September 2021. The new configuration boasts a

fixed wing A fixed-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air flying machine, such as an airplane, which is capable of flight using wings that generate lift caused by the aircraft's forward airspeed and the shape of the wings. Fixed-wing aircraft are distin ...

, a

V-tail The V-tail or ''Vee-tail'' (sometimes called a butterfly tail or Rudlicki's V-tailGudmundsson S. (2013). "General Aviation Aircraft Design: Applied Methods and Procedures" (Reprint). Butterworth-Heinemann. p. 489. , 9780123973290) of an aircraft ...

, and eight electric propellers without moving surfaces or tilting parts. It should carry up to four passengers over at with sound levels below 65 dB(A) during fly-over and below 70 dB(A) during landing. First flight is planned for 2023 and certification is expected around 2025. EASA is already working on a ''special condition VTOL'' (SC VTOL) means of compliance (MOC) to certify eVTOL aircraft. The final version of the MOC for eVTOLs will use newly developed

Eurocae The European Organisation for Civil Aviation Equipment (EUROCAE) deals exclusively with aviation standardisation, for both airborne and ground systems and equipment. It was created in 1963 in Lucerne, Switzerland by a decision of the European Civi ...

standards. The second flight control computer will be developed in collaboration with

Diehl Aviation Diehl may refer to: People Surname Arts * Arthur Diehl (1870–1929), English impressionist landscape artist * Carol Diehl, American artist, art critic and poet * Guy Diehl (born 1949), American painter *Gaston Diehl (1912–1999), French profess ...

and

Thales Thales of Miletus ( ; grc-gre, Θαλῆς; ) was a Greek mathematician, astronomer, statesman, and pre-Socratic philosopher from Miletus in Ionia, Asia Minor. He was one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle, regarded ...

Design

The

multirotor A multirotor or multicopter is a rotorcraft with more than two lift-generating rotors. An advantage of multirotor aircraft is the simpler rotor mechanics required for flight control. Unlike single- and double-rotor helicopters which use complex ...

is intended to carry four passengers, with a pilot initially and to become self-piloted when regulations allow. The overall system is being developed in Donauwörth, with the electrical propulsion system built in

Ottobrunn Ottobrunn () is a municipality southeast of Munich, Bavaria, Germany, founded in 1955. Ottobrunn consists of mainly semi-detached and detached houses, as well as extensive garden areas. Ottobrunn is also the German Headquarters of Airbus Defense ...

/Munich. The use of four

ducted fan In aeronautics, a ducted fan is a thrust-generating mechanical fan or propeller mounted within a cylindrical duct or shroud. Other terms include ducted propeller or shrouded propeller. When used in vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) applicati ...

s contribute to safety and low acoustic footprint. The fully integrated drivetrain has eight propellers and eight Siemens SP200D direct-drive

electric motor An electric motor is an electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a wire winding to generate for ...

s. The fixed pitch propellers are controlled by their

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...

. The four

electric batteries An electric battery is a source of electric power consisting of one or more electrochemical cells with external connections for powering electrical devices. When a battery is supplying power, its positive terminal is the cathode and its negati ...

total and can produce a combined output four times . The design should cruise at on fixed routes with 15 minutes endurance.

Specifications

AERO Friedrichshafen 2018, Friedrichshafen (1X7A4751)

Related development

Volocopter Volocopter GmbH (formerly called E-Volo GmbH) is a German aircraft manufacturer based in Bruchsal (near Karlsruhe) and founded by Alexander Zosel and Stephan Wolf. The company specializes in the design of electric multirotor helicopters in the f ...

References

External links