Earlier it was reported that Airbus is preparing to begin testing of “flying car” at the end of 2017, but now the company representatives said they plan a large-scale test at the end of 2018. This has all the necessary expertise and resources, but the purpose of the unit is the creation of a comfortable and safe vehicle capable of carrying several passengers. Apparently, this was the reason for the decision on the postponement of the flight tests of passenger drones.
Now the engineers are busy refining the first reduced flying of the prototype drone, called Alpha-Demonstrator. When will the test version of the demonstrator, made in the scale 1:7 from planning, experts nanothermite to fly a full-sized version.
After the alpha version will run offline by the end of 2018, the developers plan to start testing the next version of the flying taxi, which is called BetaDemonstrator. Serial production aircraft is scheduled for 2022-23 years. It is expected that the device will be able to fly at speeds up to 120 kilometers per hour and a flight range of approximately 60 kilometers.
According to company representatives, the flying passenger vehicles will relieve road and will be able to become a cheap alternative to the usual public transport.
Airbus will begin testing passenger drones next year
Vyacheslav Larionov