The European Airbus A3 (“A-cubed”) published several images of its second full-scale prototype electric air taxi Vahana. In particular, the interior of the aircraft in a minimalist design was demonstrated.

The air taxi Vahana project has been developing since the middle of the 2010s. The aircraft is designed as a convertiplane with motors situated on forward and rear tilt wings. Each wing has 4-prop electric motors.

                                                                     Vahana dashboard

For the time being, two prototypes (Alpha One and Alpha Two) have been built by A3. Alpha One is used to assess the propulsion and flight control systems. Alpha two is more like a production-ready version of the aircraft.

Vahana is 20.3 feet (6.2 m) wide, 18.7 feet (5.7 m) long, 9.2 feet (2.8 m) tall. The maximum take-off weight of the aircraft is 745 kg. In the normal operating conditions Vahana is expected to transport either one passenger or a payload.

                                                                     Vahana

The promising electric air taxi will be completely self-piloted and that is why its interior has such minimalist design only with one seat and one screen on the dashboard. The functionalities of the latter are kept in secrete, but supposedly it will be used to display some entertaining content and data on the flight progress.

Meanwhile, in the mid-May of this year, Airbus completed the first test flight of its CityAirbus air taxi. The first flight was unmanned with the CityAirbus taxi tethered to the ground. The project is aimed at designing a quadcopter-like aircraft, capable of carrying from two to four passengers to a distance of up to 60 kilometers.

Source: Nplus1

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