Airbus ‘flying car’ to appear this year

Some are of the opinion that the ‘Jetsons dream’ of a flying car will always be several years away.

But now a serious name is entering the flying car fray – Airbus. Its flying car prototype is scheduled to take off, quite literally, by the end of this year.

And judging by the comments of Rodin Lyasoff, CEO of Airbus’s Silicon Valley-based A^3 branch, in reference to “many of the technologies needed, such as batteries, motors and avionics (being) most of the way there”, it will be electrically powered.

This first ‘piloted flying vehicle platform for individual passenger and cargo transport’ goes under the Project Vahana name and has been under way since February 2016. The end-of-2017 target for a working prototype suggests that the car could make an appearance at next year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, though the company admits that one of the biggest challenges faced by the project team – the absence of AEB (Auto Emergency Braking)-type ‘sense and avoid’ technology for airborne vehicles – is yet to be resolved.

Lyasoff expects the final ‘car’ to join the various mobility schemes currently being planned by car manufacturers. “The system could operate similarly to car-sharing applications, with the use of smartphones to book a vehicle.”