A3, the Silicon Valley outpost of Airbus Group, has released new photos of its second full-scale Vahana demonstrator, Alpha Two.
The photos were shared in a May 20 blog post by Zach Lovering, previously Vahana’s project executive and now vice president of Urban Air Mobility Systems at Airbus.
Vahana is a self-piloted, all electric tilt-wing VTOL aircraft. The initial full-scale demonstrator, Alpha One, first took to the air on Jan. 31, 2018. By February of this year, Alpha One had logged more than five flight hours over 50 test flights (in addition to the 51 flight hours and 1,277 test flights logged by a subscale model).
According to Lovering, Alpha Two is not currently flying, but has joined Alpha One at the Pendleton UAS Range in Pendleton, Oregon, to support the flight test program with a full set of spares.
As the first Vahana demonstrator with a finished interior, Alpha Two is also helping the team experiment with the passenger experience, “from which we’ve learned a lot,” Lovering wrote.
