FutureFlight
Airbus Commits to eVTOL Development Despite Ending Work on E-Fan X Hybrid-Electric Aircraft
In late April, Airbus and Rolls-Royce confirmed that they are ending their collaboration to develop the E-Fan X hybrid-electric airliner project.
Airbus E-Fan X
For the E-Fan X project, Rolls-Royce developed a hybrid-electric power generation system. (Photo: David McIntosh)

Airbus says it will continue developing its plans to build eVTOL aircraft for urban air mobility applications, despite the recent cancellation of its joint E-Fan X hybrid-electric aircraft program with Rolls-Royce. Flight testing of the CityAirbus multicopter is set to resume at the Airbus Helicopter facilities at Manching in southern Germany as soon as Covid-19 lockdown restrictions permit, a company spokesman confirmed on May 5.

The two-seat CityAirbus made its first untethered flight in late 2019. Like the earlier single-seat Vahana tiltwing eVTOL, it is intended as a technology demonstrator to provide data that will inform Airbus’s eventual plans to develop a production aircraft.

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