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Aircraft

Watch Vahana's flying car transition from VTOL to forward flight mode

By Loz Blain
February 25, 2019
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Vahana's Alpha One has completed some 50 test flights now, and has just demonstrated its ability to transition between VTOL and level flight. Alpha Two, as pictured, is coming soon.
Vahana
Vahana's Alpha One has completed some 50 test flights now, and has just demonstrated its ability to transition between VTOL and level flight. Alpha Two, as pictured, is coming soon.
Vahana

In its 50th test flight, Vahana's Alpha One is starting to demonstrate its tilt-wing flight capabilities. Its eight electric props point skyward for vertical takeoff and landing, then tilt forward when in motion for efficient, fast winged flight over long ranges.

Vahana, a project by Airbus's A3 subsidiary, has now had its prototypes in the air for more than five hours of testing at the Pendleton UAS Range in Oregon. It has flown for more than seven minutes at a time, reaching top speeds close to 60 mph (97 km/h) and constantly gathering data to feed back into development of what really is a new and emerging form of aircraft.

In a video released on Friday, Vahana shows the Alpha One rising to a 210-foot high hover, then tilting forward to achieve forward motion much like a drone. Once it's moving, it tilts its wings forward to 30 degrees to accelerate up to 50 knots, or 57 miles per hour, before performing a series of other maneuvers.

Watching this video really does start to give you a sense of how agile and versatile these aircraft will become in the next decade or so, when many expect electric VTOL aircraft to become viable medium-range commuting options of the future. Check out the video below!

Source: Vahana

Vahana_Video from Kate Pokorny on Vimeo

Tags

AircraftVTOLElectric AircraftFlying CarsVahanaeVTOLAir Taxis
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Loz Blain
Loz leads the New Atlas team as Editorial Director, after nearly two decades as one of our most versatile writers. He's also proven himself as a photographer, videographer, presenter, producer and podcast engineer. A graduate in Psychology, former business analyst and touring musician, he's covered just about everything for New Atlas, concentrating lately on clean energy, AI, humanoid robotics, next-gen aircraft, and the odd bit of music, motorcycles and automotive.
7 comments
Mzungu_Mkubwa
This design looks fantastic, far more practical than the volocopter, IMO, but still has the props down low in dangerous proximity to people on the ground. Now get the price down low like the Blackfly, and you'll win! I didn't see where you describe the nature of the powertrain. Is it fully electric, or hybrid of some sort? Seems a good fit for a turbine-electric hybrid that has the performance and range to make this truly revolutionary!
minivini
I want one of these in my driveway!! As a pilot, this type aircraft displays everything I find appealing about flying, with the possible exception of speed. So far, this and the Opener Blackfly are my favorites.
guzmanchinky
That looks like a very viable design.
Douglas Bennett Rogers
This would make a great, high end automated, point to point transportation system in a large metropolitan area.
ilya
The vehicle is fully electric. Sorry, minivini, you won't be able to fly it because it flies itself.
BAKATBAKASTAKAT.CZ
The article title calls this a flying car. Having designed actual flying cars, I can definitely say that there is no way this is ever going to drive down the road. Maybe we could drop "car" and replace with "airplane"? I'm sure the FAA would agree with me, as would NHTSA, FHA, most insurance companies, financial lenders, and everyone else who makes actual flying cars a hard reality to achieve. Looks like a nice airplane though...
dougspair
So...Where's the 'car'...?
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