Airbus Acubed Vahana Beta (concept design)
Vahana Beta (concept design)
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 deliverers in the world.
A³ Vahana Beta two passenger eVTOL concept design aircraft
The Airbus A³ Vahana (pronounced “Acubed”) Beta is a two passenger eVTOL concept design aircraft and used for advanced air mobility (AAM). The aircraft has an expected cruise speed of 145 mph (230 km/h) and a predicted range of 60 m (100 km). The aircraft has an estimated cruise altitude of 10,000 ft (3,048 m) and has an anticipated maximum payload 450 lb (200 kg). The aircraft has eight propellers and has eight electric motors and is powered by batteries. The aircraft has canard wings and has fixed skid landing gear. The aircraft will be made with carbon fiber composite for a high strength and low weight ratio.
Airbus A3 Vahana project successfully built and flight tested Vahana Alpha One (N301VX) and Vahana Alpha Two (N302VX) full-scale technology demonstrators. The two numbers were selected to reflect Airbus’s heritage of 300 series aircraft numbers coupled with a “V” for Vahana and “X” for experimental. The team also built a flying sub-scale demonstrator named Omega. The last flight of Vahana Alpha One took place on November 14th, 2019.
Specifications:
- Aircraft type: eVTOL passenger concept design aircraft
- Capacity: 2 passengers plus carry-on luggage
- Cruise speed: 145 mph (230 km/h)
- Range: 60 m (100 km)
- Cruise altitude: 10,000 ft (3,048 m)
- Maximum payload: 450 lb (200 kg)
- Propellers: 8 propellers
- Electric motors: 8 electric motors
- Power source: Batteries
- Fuselage: Carbon fiber composite
- Window: Canopy over cockpit
- Wings: Canard wings
- Landing gear: Fixed skid 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. There are also redundancies in the sub-systems of the aircraft.
Related Aircraft:
- Airbus Acubed Vahana Alpha One (defunct)
- Airbus Acubed Vahana Alpha Two (defunct)
- 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:
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, Septemper/October 2019
- Article: Urban Air Taxis Underway — UAM at Heli-Expo, Vertiflite, March/April 2020
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