Airbus’s CityAirbus NextGen Air Taxi Just Had Its First Flight

The CityAirbus NextGen eVTOL aircraft has completed its first liftoff for the official start of its flight-test campaign.

Airbus Helicopters CEO Bruno Even made the announcement yesterday on X. “I’m happy to share that the #CityAirbus NextGen flight test campaign in Donauwörth, Germany, has started with a first lift-off,” Even wrote. “A big thank you to all our teams who have contributed to this important step in the marathon that is Advanced Air Mobility.”

CityAirbus opened a 10,700-square-foot test facility in Donauwörth earlier this year, at the same site where it already develops and builds the H135 and H145 light utility helicopters. The company has slowly been feeding progress of the new eVTOL since it revealed the prototype last March. This first unpiloted takeoff is a milestone.

Parent Airbus is the world’s largest airplane manufacturer with an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) program. Textron Aviation (parent of Cessna Citation, Beechcraft, and other aircraft brands) is also building its Nexus eVTOL with flights planned for next year, and Embraer spun off its Eve Air Mobility startup to develop its own electric aircraft.

The four-passenger, two-tonne CityAirbus NextGen is aiming for a 50-mile range and cruise speed of 75 mph to provide intra-city and regional transport. It will have a 40-foot wingspan. It doesn’t have the same performance stats as competitors such as Joby (100 mile range, maximum speed of 200 mph) and Archer (50 miles, 150 mph), but Airbus sees a solid niche for the NextGen.

Last year, Balkiz Sarihan, the CEO and head of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) at Airbus, said the eVTOL will be ready to enter the commercial air space in the “second half of the decade.” Sarihan said the company was “not in a rush at all on this one.”

Joby plans to have its five-person eVTOL flying commercially by 2025, and Archer also expects to have FAA certification next year. German competitors Lilium, which recently entered bankruptcy proceedings, had intended to have its Lilium Jet in service by 2025 but pushed it back a year, and Volocopter anticipates going into commercial service by 2025, though it recently established a vertiport for the Paris Olympics and flew one demo flight to the River Seine at the end of the games.

Airbus has completed other electric aircraft prototypes, including the Vahana and CityAirbus Alpha, but the company decided to pull back and develop the NextGen because of those other aircraft’s “limitations,” said Sarihan.