Airbus remains committed to CityAirbus eVTOL programme despite impact of COVID-19
Aerospace giant Airbus has said it remains committed to its CityAirbus eVTOL programme, despite the impact of COVID-19 on other projects within the business.
It comes after the company and Rolls-Royce mutually agreed to end its E‑Fan X demonstrator programme last month, which was launched to explore electric aviation and involved equipping a BAe Systems 146 aircraft with hybrid-electric technology.
Speaking at the time, Grazia Vittadini, Chief Technology Officer at Airbus, said: “As we start to navigate the realities of post-COVID-19 world, I’m more certain than ever that we need to continue full-speed ahead with our sustainability ambitions.
“But de-carbonising the aviation industry is no small feat. To achieve this, we need to re-focus all our efforts on technology bricks that will take us there. It’s for this reason that Airbus and Rolls Royce have jointly decided to bring the E‑Fan X demonstrator to an end.
“To say we’ve learned a lot from this demonstrator project would be an understatement.”
The CityAirbus is an all-electric multicopter vehicle featuring four ducted high-lift propulsion units, with eight propellers driven by electric motors at around 950 rpm to ensure a low acoustic footprint.
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, ideal for aerial urban ride-sharing, and a full-scale demonstrator completed its first flight in May 2019.
Speaking about the CityAirbus programme, an Airbus spokesperson said: “Airbus considers new forms of air transport such as urban air mobility as an opportunity to develop key technologies for the future of VTOL platforms, including electric flight and autonomy.
“As such, we are continuing the test programme of our technology demonstrator CityAirbus. The expansion of the flight envelope in Manching is on the agenda, but due to the current situation we can’t give a timeframe.”
