Airbus’s new ‘CityAirbus’, a 4-seater urban mobility copter, just took to the skies for the first time in public during a demonstration flight.

The electric aircraft is part of Airbus’s vision for “flying taxi” aircraft and currently being developed by the manufacturer’s helicopter division. Airbus Helicoper’s Twitter handle wrote: “New #CityAirbus videoDown pointing backhand index. Our full-scale #UAM demonstrator took off at 2,310 kg – the highest take-off weight of a full electric VTOL aircraft with a distributed drive system. The 4-minute demo saw the 4-seat #eVTOL fly at an altitude of 20 metres. #ZeroEmissions.”

The idea for a compact “flying taxi” first came from our desire to take city commuting into the air in a sustainable way. Our team began by rethinking traditional aircraft architecture, creating a multirotor design based on electric motors. Thus, CityAirbus was born. To date, the CityAirbus sub-scale model has flown more than 100 test flights, which has proven the aerodynamic configuration of the full-scale prototype.

CityAirbus has a multicopter configuration that features four ducted high-lift propulsion units. Its eight propellers are driven by electric motors at around 950 rpm to ensure a low acoustic footprint. The single failure tolerant architecture ensures safety. Its cruise speed will be approximately 120 Km/h on fixed routes with up to 15 minutes of autonomy. It has a capacity of four passengers that is ideal for aerial urban ridesharing.