Airbus Acubed Vahana Alpha Two (defunct)

Vahana Alpha Two (defunct)
Airbus Acubed
San Jose, California, USA
www.acubed.airbus.com

The Airbus A3 Vahana project started in 2015 in a Silicon Valley (Northern California, USA) in a innovation center of Airbus to develop an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft for people to replace cars and train travel for short-range advanced air mobility (AAM), formerly called urban air mobility (UAM). The team consisted of 100 personnel, over 130 test flights A3 is pronounced A-cubed and Vahana means vehicle in Sanskrit. The A3 project ended in December 2019.

Airbus SE was founded on December 18, 1970 as is headquartered in Leiden, Netherlands, with offices and manufacturing facilities throughout Europe. Airbus SE is Europe's largest aerospace company and a 2019 article shows that Airbus is the largest aerospace company, in terms of revenue, in the world. Annual revenue for 2021 for the company was €52.15 billion and the company employs over 126,000 people. The business units for the company are in commercial aircraft, helicopters, defense and space. Airbus is a largest airliner manufacturer in the world and has has the highest sales in revenue for helicopters and turbine deliveries in the world.

A³ Vahana Alpha Two full-scale self-piloting eVTOL canard tilt-wing technology demonstrator
The Airbus A³ Vahana (pronounced “Acubed”) Alpha Two is a full-scale self-piloting eVTOL canard tilt-wing technology demonstrator which has eight propellers and eight electric motors for propulsion in all directions. Alpha Two has a mock-up interior with seating for one person but hypothetically could carry two passengers, the instrument panel with one small screen is a mock-up as well.

The aircraft has a cruise speed of 143 mph (230 km/h), a range of 60 miles (100 km) and has a cruise altitude of 10,000 ft (3,048 m). The empty weight of the aircraft is 1,050 lb (475 kg), has a maximum payload weight of 450 lb (200 kg) and has a maximum takeoff weight of 1,800 lb (815 kg). The aircraft has a working canopy over the cockpit, has a finished mock-up interior and uses fixed skid landing gear. The aircraft also has an emergency ballistic parachute which can safely be deployed at low altitudes.

The vehicle uses eight 60 hp (45 kw) motors situated on one forward and one rear tilt-wings. Its sensor suite employs cameras as well as active Lidar and radar. It has a crash rated seat and an emergency ballistic parachute that works effectively even at a low altitude. The aircraft has fixed-skid type landing gear which keeps complexity and weight down to to a minimum.

On May 20, 2019, a new Vahana article reveals that Alpha Two is a full-scale demonstrator, has a finished interior and is located in Pendleton, Oregon, USA. The article has multiple pictures of the aircraft . By having a second complete full-scale vehicle, Vahana states they achieved two primary objectives: 1) They have a complete set of spares if needed and 2) They can now experiment with the passenger experience.

One of the pictures of the Alpha Two aircraft, below, you'll see a close-up view of the front of the aircraft. That equipment is part of the system that Vahana uses to sense and avoid obstacles in the air. This aircraft will be completely autonomous and in addition, the aircraft will have to be able to sense ground infrastructure, other eVTOL aircraft, drones, airplanes, helicopters, birds, wires, trees, weather conditions and more. In addition, the aircraft has to autonomously avoid all obstacles during take-off, forward flight and when landing and be extremely fast in all the phases of flight. A complete article on Airbus' technology to handle these enormous tasks is here online.

The Vahana Alpha Two eVTOL one passenger aircraft was never flown.

To stay current with the latest in eVTOL technology with Airbus, please see the Acubed Vahana website.

Update: The project has been ended.

Specifications:

• Aircraft type: eVTOL trade show mock-up
• Piloting: Remote controlled
• Capacity: There is a seat for 1 passenger, the cockpit instrument panel is a mock-up
• Cruise speed: 125 mph (200 km/h)
• Range with reserves: 30 miles (50 km)
• Cruise altitude: 5,000 ft (1,524 m)
• Empty weight: 1,600 lb (726  kg)
• Maximum payload: 200 lb (90 kg)
• Maximum takeoff weight: 1,800 lb (816 kg)
• Propellers: 8 propellers
• Electric Motors: 8 electric motors
• Motor output: 8 x 60 hp (8 x 45 kw)
• Power source: Battery packs
• Fuselage: Carbon fiber composite
• Fuselage length: 19.5 ft (5.86 m)
• Overall height: 9.275 ft (2.81 m)
• Wingspan: 20.6 ft (6.25 m)
• Tip-to-tip distance: 19.69 ft (6 m )
• Windows: Canopy over cockpit
• Wings: Canard tilt-wing, each wing can tilt independently
• Landing gear: Fixed skid-type landing gear
• Safety features: Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP), provides safety through redundancy for its passengers and/or cargo. DEP means having multiple propellers (or ducted fans) and motors on the aircraft so if one or more propellers (ducted fans) or motors fail, the other working propellers (or ducted fans) and motors can safely land the aircraft.

Related Aircraft:

• Airbus Acubed Vahana Alpha One (defunct)
• Airbus Acubed Vahana Beta (concept design)
• Airbus Italdesign Pop.Up Next (concept design)
• Airbus Italdesign Pop.Up Next (prototype)
• Airbus Helicopters CityAirbus (technology demonstrator)
• Airbus Helicopters CityAirbus NextGen (prototype)
• Airbus Helicopters CityAirbus NextGen (technology demonstrator)
• EADS (Airbus) eCO2avia (mock-up)

Company Insights:

• Crunchbase
• MarketWatch
• Pitchbook
• Tracxn

Resources:

• Acubed Vahana website
• Acubed Vahana Twitter
• Acubed Vahana Instagram
• Acubed Vahana LinkedIn
• Acubed Wayfinder website
• Airbus Vahana website
• Airbus A³ Vahana Wikipedia
• Article: The Demand for On-Demand Mobility, Vertiflite, January/February 2017
• Article: Air Mobility Bonanza Beckons Electric VTOL Developers, Vertiflite, March/April 2017
• Airbus website: Rethinking Urban Air Mobility, Airbus, June 2017
• Video: Vahana - Passenger Experience, Vahana, June 16, 2017
• Vahana post: Exploring Sense-and-Avoid Systems for Autonomous Vehicles, Medium, Dec. 20, 2017
• Article: First flight of the A³ Vahana eVTOL tiltwing, Vertipedia, January 2018
• Article: Airbus Vahana eVTOL Aircraft Completes First Full-Scale Test Flight, DefPost, Feb. 3, 2018
• Article: Before They Take Off Flying Cars Must Defeat Bureaucracy, Wired, Feb. 15, 2018
• Article: Vahana Soars in its First Fully Self-Piloted Flight, PR Newswire, Feb. 16, 2018
• Article: A³ Vahana eVTOL Tiltwing, Vertiflite, March/April 2018
• Vahana post: Flight Test Update: 50 Flights, Medium, Feb. 22, 2019
• Article: Watch Vahana's flying car transition from VTOL to forward flight mode, New Atlas, Feb. 24, 2019
• Vahana post: Step Inside Alpha Two, Medium, May 20, 2019
• Article: Airbus A³’s Vahana Electric Air Taxi Has a Single Screen Pilotless Cockpit, Rotor & Wing International, May 21, 2019
• Article: Oshkosh e-AirVenture, Vertiflite, September/October 2019
• Article: Our Story: Part 1, Acubed, Oct. 25, 2019
• Article: Our Story: Part 2, Acubed, Nov. 9, 2019
• Article: Our Story: Part 3, Acubed, Nov. 18, 2019
• Video: eVTOL News In-depth Interview: Airbus UAM Vahana - Geoffrey Bower, Chief Engineer, Vertical Flight Society, Nov. 21, 2019
• Article: Our Story: Part 4, Acubed, Nov. 27, 2019
• Article: A Celebratory, Bittersweet Moment: Vahana’s Final Flight, Acubed, Dec. 16, 2019
• Article: Urban Air Taxis Underway — UAM at Heli-Expo, Vertiflite, March/April 2020