Vahana, in the Hindu religion, is the carrier of a god. Airbus appropriately named its first air mobility prototype for this mythical form of transportation. The initial first users of this exotic transportation will be required to have godly wealth to afford it.

A³ (A cubed) is the Airbus’ advanced projects and partnerships “outpost” in Silicon Valley. Vahana is one of its projects. The goal is to develop on demand vertical lift transportation to bring us into George Jetson’s world in the near future. The plan is that an unmanned autonomous vehicle will come to the customers location, whether a parking lot, driveway or building top, the passenger will board, the UAV will the ascend vertically to its programmed altitude and fly the customer to his/her desired destination.

Initially this will be limited to what would otherwise be a taxi, Uber or car service due to limitations on battery technology. Obviously, one can envision longer trips when either batteries or other energy sources would allow.

Vahana, is an all composite aircraft (except for the skids) and has already completed over 66 test flights. It is capable of carrying one passenger and there are no flight controls in the passenger compartment. So far, no human has been a passenger.

Its gross weight is 1600 lbs including a 200 lb passenger. There are eight 60 hp (45kw) electric engines, and no other source of power. While the propellers aren’t constant speed, they are programed so that they will rotate at the most efficient speed for the flight regime. The battery power limits the range to 27 nautical miles and has a top speed of 90 kts (over 100 mph). So far, the total flight time is approximately 10 hours.

Airbus, a company with the financial ability and strong history of technological innovation certainly is in a position to be one of the leaders in this exciting technology frontier.