Photo Info
The CityAirbus NextGen prototype takes its first flight on Nov. 6, 2024. Airbus Photo

Airbus to ‘pause’ CityAirbus NextGen development

By Oliver Johnson | January 28, 2025

Estimated reading time 5 minutes, 15 seconds.

Airbus Helicopters will pause its CityAirbus NextGen urban air mobility (UAM) demonstrator program later this year, claiming battery technology, in particular, needs to evolve before it can launch a successful UAM program.

The move was announced by Airbus Helicopters CEO Bruno Even during a briefing on the company’s performance in 2024, and followed a strategic review at the end of the year.

“We learned a lot with CityAirbus NextGen, and our 10 years of investment in the urban air mobility prototype has been clearly instrumental to advance our understanding of technologies which are not only relevant for this urban mobility market, but for all our portfolio and across the Airbus portfolio,” said Even.

“At the same time we see today . . . that the conditions to launch a new program are not necessarily there.”

Airbus made its first foray into the UAM landscape with its CityAirbus and Vahana demonstrators almost a decade ago, and incorporated lessons learned from those two programs into CityAirbus NextGen.

The CityAirbus NextGen prototype was unveiled in March 2024. Airbus Photo

Airbus launched the CityAirbus NextGen prototype in 2021, with the objective of being in a position to launch a full program before the end of the end of the decade.

The aircraft is powered by eight propellers and 16 electrical power units, with dual systems for redundancy, and can carry one pilot with three passengers in a banked seat at the rear of the cabin.

The performance targets for the type included having the ability to transport four passengers 80 to 100 kilometers (50 to 62 miles).

“We clearly see, on the battery side, the need to continue to improve the performance in order to be able to reach what we consider the minimum level of performance and mission,” said Even.

When asked if he had a sense of how long it would take for battery technology to mature to such a point, he said: “Not in the near future.”

Last year saw major development on the CityAirbus NextGen prototype, as the build process concluded and the first flight was recorded in November.

The flight test campaign has been taking place at Airbus Helicopters’ facility in Donauworth, Germany, where a 10,700-square foot CityAirbus test center was built and officially opened in March last year.

While the center was created to initially focus on CityAirbus NextGen’s development, the intention was for it to ultimately test systems for all the manufacturer’s electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles.

Even said the launch of a UAM program depends on many factors, including regulation, maturity of the business model, and maturity of the technology — and said key technologies need to continue to evolve before Airbus would want to progress the CityAirbus NextGen program.

He said the manufacturer will “continue to monitor” the situation and would “see in the future” if — and when — to pursue UAM.

For now, the demonstrator will complete its planned flight test campaign, which Airbus expects to last about a year. Even said this would allow the manufacturer “to really take the benefit and take the lessons of this new architecture, [and] all the technology on board.”

He noted that some of technology being developed within CityAirbus NextGen could be used across the manufacturer’s product range.

With files from Ben Forrest

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1 Comment

  1. The lack of sufficient battery performance for the Airbus “urban air mobility prototype” (insufficient battery density and reliability?) of course holds true for the rest of the AAM industry – unless one knows something the others don’t.
    Otherwise, the consequences will inevitably turn out to be devastating.
    Watch that space.

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