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The CityAirbus NextGen eVTOL will carry one pilot and three passengers. Airbus Image

Airbus talks CityAirbus NextGen

By Oliver Johnson | March 1, 2022

Estimated reading time 13 minutes, seconds.

Airbus is continuing development work on its CityAirbus NextGen eVTOL, with first flight targeted in 2023.

The CityAirbus NextGen eVTOL will carry one pilot and three passengers. Airbus Image
The CityAirbus NextGen eVTOL will carry one pilot and three passengers. Airbus Image

The project builds on the work of the manufacturer’s two prior eVTOL demonstration programs: The 2.3-tonne quadcopter CityAirbus Alpha, and the tilt-wing Vahana.

“We really tested the boundaries of speed, of aerodynamics, of noise and, of course, power [with Vahana and CityAirbus Alpha],” Balkiz Sarihan, head of UAM strategy execution and partnerships, told media during an Airbus briefing.

“If you look at the previous two programs, this is a blend of what we consider to be the best of both worlds.”

As with the CityAirbus Alpha, NextGen is a multicopter (with eight instead of four propellers), but it also has a wing. “It is the best structure and architecture for distance, of course, but you have full hover — there is no compromise on this,” said Sarihan.

She said Airbus has designed the aircraft to be simple to certify, simple to maintain, and provide reduced operating costs. As such, there is no tilting mechanism. The two aft rotors are fixed at an angle to generate forward thrust in cruise.

As with any urban air mobility platform, noise is a major consideration. Sarihan said the aircraft is benefitting from research on technologies that have been tested on other Airbus aircraft, such as the Blue Edge canted rotor blades. These blades are said to reduce the sound levels of the Airbus H160 by up to 50 percent. The technology from these is being incorporated into the NextGen’s propellers, said Sarihan.

Airbus is performing noise tests in Paris “to understand not only the level of noise, but the acoustics of the noise to make sure that when our aircraft is in operation, it is blending seamlessly into the communities,” she added.

The company is targeting 70 db at takeoff, and 65 db during cruise flight.

The CityAirbus NextGen’s operating range will be 80 kilometers (50 miles), with a cruise speed of 120 km/h (75 mph) — somewhat conservative figures compared to some of its competitors.

The eVTOL will have an operating range of 80 kilometers (50 miles) and a cruise speed of 120 km/h (75 mph). Airbus Image
The eVTOL will have an operating range of 80 kilometers (50 miles) and a cruise speed of 120 km/h (75 mph). Airbus Image

“They are conservative, but perhaps pragmatic is also a good word,” said Sarihan. “This is not maximum range . . . this is operational range. What we’re talking about is giving our operators, and our cities, and our infrastructure realistic values of where such a vehicle will start — and it’s also based on today’s technology.”

Still, Airbus believes the aircraft meets a design “sweet spot” that will allow it to address 90 percent of all urban missions. And, as new technologies and capabilities come online — such as ever-more powerful batteries, or autonomy technology — the design allows for them to be incorporated.

“The idea is that the front pod can expand without a major design change in the architecture,” said Sarihan.

Operations

NextGen has a capacity of four: a pilot plus three passengers. Airbus firmly believes UAM operations will be piloted to begin with. Sarihan said the cockpit will be “intuitive” and designed to reduce pilot effort.
“The way that we’re designing it, traditional helicopter pilots will be able to fly it,” she said. “In fact, it should be simpler than the operation of a traditional helicopter .”

As well as banking on existing pilots switching to operate UAMs, Airbus is also working on a training program to develop pilots specifically for the technology.

“Almost everyone [in the UAM sector] is going piloted first — with the exception of a few — so, the demand for pilots will increase,” said Sarihan. “I think this is also a good sign for our pilot community, because we get a lot of [people] saying, ‘autonomy will eliminate the need for pilots’ — this is not at all the case. . . . I think we will see in fact an increased demand and many different applications for pilots.”

Vahana’s first test flight in Pendleton, Oregon, reaching a height of 16 feet. Vahana Project Photo
NextGen builds on the lessons learned from its Vahana demonstrator. Vahana Project Photo

For passengers, Sarihan said Airbus has designed NextGen with the user experience in mind, providing as much translucency in the cabin as possible. This will help enhance “the joy of experiencing something that is quite new to most of the public,” she said.

The aircraft will be accessed from the front through clamshell doors. This is both an aesthetic and safety consideration, with Airbus mindful of accommodating passengers who may not be used to flying in vertical-lift aircraft.

To explore how the aircraft will fit into urban communities, Airbus is creating vertiports at Pointoise-Cormeilles-en-Vexin Airport (about 35 km/22 miles northwest of Paris), and in Manching, Germany.

The work in the Pointoise sandbox is begin undertaken with long-term partners Groupe ADP and RATP Group (the airport owner and a major infrastructure company).

“We’ve been working with them since the very early days,” said Sarihan. “[We are] mapping out the requirements, mapping out the routes, mapping out where vertiport locations can go, the first missions that will fly in order to make the UAM service as acceptable as possible to the citizens of Paris.”

The CityAirbus Alpha flew its first untethered flight in December 2019. Airbus Photo

Regarding the vertiport in Germany, Sarihan said it would be part of a full UAM working system.

“This means an operational environment where the aircraft will fly, a vertiport, a use space and preliminary operations,” she said. “You want to understand the full system, how it will integrate, [and] how the public will use it. What we plan to do here is take this and export it to additional cities where we plan to grow.”

However, while Airbus has an eye to the technology’s future wider incorporation into societies, it is also mindful that a UAM aircraft will need to be able to use existing infratrastructure, too. CityAirbus NextGen is designed to fit onto existing helipads, with a footprint similar to that of an Airbus H145.

Airbus is developing NextGen to meet the certification standards of EASA’s Special Condition VTOL enhanced category, with certification targeted in 2025.

First operating sectors are likely to be emergency medical services and aerial tourism, said Sarihan. “When you think about also this technology of zero emissions, zero noise, and reaching remote places — when we think of ecotourism applications, this is a beautiful way for us to be able to experience these locations without causing any interruption to the local habitat or environment,” said Sarihan.

The aircraft is designed to be easy to operate, with an intuitive cockpit. Airbus Image
The aircraft is designed to be easy to operate, with an intuitive cockpit. Airbus Image

Airbus will not, however, be the ones operating the CityAirbus NextGen. That task will be left to third parties — the manufacturer believes these companies will likely be from among its existing network of rotary- and fixed-wing operators.

“Airbus does not have the need or the intention to become an operator in this space,” said Sarihan. “We have introduced this to our existing operator network as an extension of their capabilities and their technology.”

She acknowledged that there may be some missions where “it just makes more sense” to use an eVTOL over a helicopter, but said Airbus sees the new technology as being complementary to operator’s existing fleets.

“When we talk to our operators, they really see it in this way as well,” said Sarihan. “This is also why we’ve chosen this configuration, this performance profile for it.”

While many of its competitors are already taking orders for their aircraft, Sarihan said Airbus is focused on maturing the technology for market, while working with a few select partners.

“We are not out there looking for orders or pre-orders on aircraft, which will come in the second half of the decade,” she said.

The ultimate size of the market will be in the thousands — but it will take time to get there, said Sairhan.

“The steps needed to get to that point in time are sequential for us, so this is why we start with value-add missions,” she said. “It’s not going to go overnight to thousands of vehicles flying everywhere — it’s just not feasible.”

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