Contributor - Europe

Cathy Buyck

Eduardo Dominguez-Puerta, head of Airbus Urban Mobility, is pretty straightforward: “We believe that there is a market out there that is untapped.” By 2030, 60 percent of the world's population—some five billion people—will live in current and future megacities. This significant population growth is expected to create a real need for innovative mobility options as ground infrastructure becomes increasingly congested.

 


It takes more than two hours from São Paulo Guarulhos Airport to the city center by taxi and “it is not a super experience” versus 10 to 15 minutes by helicopter, Dominguez-Puerta noted. He admitted that a helicopter transfer is for the rich and VIPs now, but stressed, “Airbus wants to democratize vertical transport and wants to offer cities a new lever to help people move. We believe providing people with a safe, sustainable and convenient solution that leverages the airspace above cities is a solution.”

 


Airbus is not disclosing all the urban air mobility (UAM) concepts it is working on, chief technology officer Grazia Vittadini confirmed, but three UAM technologies and configurations are in the public domain. The OEM is showcasing its Vahana, a single-passenger or cargo, all-electric, fully-autonomous, vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) demonstrator, this week at the Paris Airshow (Static C4).

 


The Vahana uses eight 45-kW electric motors and a tandem tilt-wing configuration that converts between rotor-borne vertical and wing-borne forward flight. This configuration enables Vahana to achieve both vertical takeoff and landing, as well as cross-city flight range, on battery power alone.

 


Its range spans 50 kilometers and cruise speed is 100 knots, enabling trip times that are two to four times faster than cars. The vehicle is fully self-piloted, which is enabled by its onboard detect-and-avoid systems that can identify both air- and ground-borne hazards. Wingspan is 6.25 meters, height is 2.82 meters, and weight is 726 kg.

 


The first Vahana has flown over 50 full-scale test flights to date, including a transition from vertical to forward flight, totaling over five flight hours. Airbus last month released images of the second complete full-scale vehicle, Alpha Two, the first Vahana demonstrator with a finished interior.

 


Meanwhile, the company's CityAirbus is a larger eVTOL concept with multicopter configuration that features four ducted high-lift propulsion units. Its four pairs of contra-rotating propellers, each&nbsp;2.8 meters in diameter, are powered by&nbsp;eight by eight 100-kW electric motors—designed by Siemens—at around 950 rpm to ensure a low acoustic footprint.

 


Its cruise speed will be approximately 120 km per hour on fixed routes, with up to 15 minutes of autonomy. Takeoff weight is 2.2 tons. It has a capacity of four passengers, which Airbus believes is ideal for aerial urban ridesharing.

 


A CityAirbus sub-scale model has flown more than 100 test flights.&nbsp;First test flight of the prototype vehicle was originally planned for the end of 2018, but that date slipped and a first “hop” took place May 1, Dominguez-Puerta said.

 


Airbus' collaborative joint research project with Audi and Italdesign has resulted in the Pop.Up Next ground-and-air concept vehicle that explores multi-modality in urban settings. The flying car consists of two modular components: a ground vehicle module shaped as a passenger capsule and an electric-propelled air vehicle module. When flying, the weight of both modules is expected to be two tons.

 


“We know that the Vahana and CityAirbus are not the final vehicles we want to bring to the market. They are technical demonstrators; we want to maximize our learning,” Dominguez-Puerta noted. He downplayed criticism that some competitors were more advanced and released a model they will bring in production, pointing out that at Airbus, saying, “The appetite for business is less than the appetite for safety.”

 


On top of its aeronautical and safety DNA, Airbus’s solid financial footing provides it with another advantage compared to the dozens of start-ups that are designing future aerial vehicles, he asserted. “You can raise capital for a design and to build a prototype. However, as soon as you enter into the sizing and costing of certification and industrialisation, a lot of those investors will not follow,” he said, predicting the field to eventually narrow to five or six configurations or manufacturers.

 


Making urban air mobility a safe reality is bigger than any one company and his job, Dominguez-Puerta insisted, was to stop dreaming of flying-taxis and start understanding what steps are needed to create the UAM ecosystem in a responsible manner. “We need to be pragmatic but persistent. The most important is not to be the first with our platforms. I think it is wiser [from a financial perspective] and more important to be very present in the architecture of the urban air mobility ecosystem.”

 


Airbus’ approach, he emphasized, includes building and bringing together all the critical components and players—technology, business models, regulators and certification, politicians, city integration, infrastructure development, and airspace management—to make urban air transport a reality.

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