Airbus is preparing to unveil the first full-scale prototype of its CityAirbus NextGen eVTOL aircraft. The reveal of the final configuration of its lift-and-cruise design is expected to happen during an event on March 7 marking the opening of its test facility at Donauwörth in Germany where it is preparing to start flight testing later this year.
Balkiz Sarihan, CEO of the European aerospace group’s urban air mobility business unit, told reporters during a media briefing this week that her engineering team has powered up the aircraft on the ground and is now developing the flight test profile. A second prototype of the four-seat aircraft is being assembled.
Last October, Airbus tested the so-called Millenium stick flight control system to be used by CityAirbus pilots on its FlightLab helicopter testbed. The company is looking to deploy its Vertex autonomous flight technology—including a new human-machine interface for the flight deck—to reduce single-pilot workload.
Airbus has not declared a target date for achieving EASA type certification in Europe but appears to envisage being ready to start deliveries by the end of this decade. Unlike many eVTOL start-ups, which rely on multiple sources of cash, the program is fully funded by the Airbus group and also is not scrambling to sign up prospective launch customers. Moreover, it has no intention of operating the CityAirbus vehicle itself.
“The industry will have to prove itself before air taxi services are viable,” Sarihan said, indicating that Airbus does not expect on-demand, door-to-door operations to be the first eVTOL use cases, mainly due to a lack of adequate capacity and infrastructure. Instead, the company envisages use on scheduled passenger routes, as well as for emergency medical services and ecotourism flights that are currently operated by noisier, carbon-emitting helicopters. “The concept of operations for these services is much simpler, with largely prebooked demand making it a reasonable place to start,” she added.
Battery Costs Add to Uncertainty about eVTOL Business Viability
According to Airbus, it is hard to achieve certainty about the business viability of eVTOL operating models partly because of questions about battery performance, management, and replacement costs. The UAM business unit is tapping the expertise of Airbus colleagues in Toulouse to develop battery packs, based in part on their experience with satellites.
Working with 30 partners through the Bavarian Air Mobility Initiative, Airbus is devising an ecosystem to support early operations in southern Germany. Later this year, it will deploy an airship and a subscale version of the CityAirbus (with a 3.7-meter wingspan) to conduct test flights between communities including Ingolstadt and Manching. Partners include railway operator Deutsche Bahn, Munich Airport, and vertiport developer Skyports. Part of the project involves using an artificial intelligence algorithm to manage tasks such as predicting slot allocation needs.
In Italy, Airbus, which has a group-wide customer base of some 3,000 aircraft operators, has its first eVTOL airline partner in ITA Airways. In January, it widened its ecosystem development network in the country to include energy provider Enel, as well as Urban V, which is the vertiport division of Aeroporti di Roma.
Other projects include efforts to define eVTOL EMS missions with Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation. Similar work is being conducted with partners in Estonia and Japan.
For now, the company’s main areas of focus for UAM services are in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and some parts of Latin America. Sarihan indicated that helicopter operators are viewed as likely early adopters of eVTOL vehicles, in part because they will face lower levels of investment needed to get operations up and running.
