Skip to content
Technology & Innovation

Airbus Plans to Test a Flying Car by the End of the Year

Airbus Group CEO Tom Enders announced last week that the company plans to test a prototype of a “flying car” by the end of the year.
Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter
A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Airbus Group CEO Tom Enders has announced that the company plans to test a prototype of a “flying car” by the end of the year.


The autonomous vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) vehicle called Vahana, is going to be for individual passenger and cargo transport and is supposed to utilize clean technology. The aircraft is composed of eight rotors on two sets of wings, both of which tilt depending on whether the vehicle is flying vertically or horizontally.

The company sees the development of such vehicles as a way to reduce traffic and infrastructure costs in cities.

“One hundred years ago, urban transport went underground, now we have the technological wherewithal to go above ground,” – said Enders at a digital tech conference in Munich.

Vahana is a project of A³, the Silicon Valley arm of Airbus whose mission is “to disrupt Airbus Group and the rest of the aerospace industry.” Two other projects of the company are Skyways, which aims to help evolve current regulatory constraints and CityAirbus – an aerial vehicle that will resemble a drone but will be designed for multiple passengers and city travel. 

Artist’s impression of the multipropeller CityAirbus vehicle” Photo: Airbus Group

While initially CityAirbus would be operated by a pilot (similarly to a helicopter) to allow for quick entry into the market, it would switch over to full autonomous operations once regulations are in place, directly benefitting from Skyways and Vahana’s contribution.  

Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter
A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Related
It’s plain to see that I’m an optimist, sometimes more than is socially comfortable. The ease with which I dismiss the disastrous economic decline above serves as one example of that. I wrote that the recession will benefit our political system, and, before I cut this line, as having “rewarded our company for methodical execution and ruthless efficiency by removing competitors from the landscape.” I make no mention of the disastrous effects on millions of people, and the great uncertainty that grips any well-briefed mind, because it truly doesn’t stand in the foreground of my mind (despite suffering personal loss of wealth). Our species is running towards a precipice with looming dangers like economic decline, political unrest, climate crisis, and more threatening to grip us as we jump off the edge, but my optimism is stronger now than ever before. On the other side of that looming gap are extraordinary breakthroughs in healthcare, communications technology, access to space, human productivity, artistic creation and literally hundreds of fields. With the right execution and a little bit of luck we’ll all live to see these breakthroughs — and members of my generation will live to see dramatically lengthened life-spans, exploration and colonization of space, and more opportunity than ever to work for passion instead of simply working for pay. Instead of taking this space to regale you with the many personal and focused changes I intend to make in 2009, let me rather encourage you to spend time this year thinking, as I’m going to, more about what we can do in 2009 to positively affect the future our culture will face in 2020, 2050, 3000 and beyond.

Up Next