Airbus reveals future plans for flying taxi

Aerospace company Airbus aims to present the next year its first prototype of autonomous flying taxi that has the potential to solve the traffic congestion problem in the future. That's because the situation on the roads will worsen as researchers say that by 2030, 60% of the world population will live in cities.

Flying machine, codenamed "Vahan" can be ordered through a platform called CityAirbus, which will be similar to that one provided by Uber. The service will be available on the market no earlier than 2021. The vehicle will be developed by the Airbus A3 division, which operates in Silicon Valley, USA. The flying machine will be capable of transporting both passengers and cargo. The technologies needed to build Vahan are now available, but the A3 group has to work on improving the system automatically by avoiding obstacles.

However, Airbus says it will carry out tests next year on a smaller scale, using drones at the National University of Singapore. This will help provide “tangible proof” that the technology can be developed safely, according to the French manufacturer. “I’m no big fan of Star Wars, but it’s not crazy to imagine that one day our big cities will have flying cars making their way along roads in the sky,” said Airbus Group CEO Tom Enders, in a statement. “In a not too distant future, we’ll use our smartphones to book a fully automated flying taxi that will land outside our front door - without any pilot.”

Airbus insists the Vahana project is not a pie-in-the-sky fantasy, pointing out that much of the technology required “such as batteries, motors and avionics are most of the ways there.”