Airbus Helicopters will “pause” its City Airbus NextGen eVTOL programme when the current series of its flight testing programme is completed later this year, the company’s CEO Bruno Even told aviation journalists at a briefing earlier this evening (27 January).
Driving the programme’s suspension is the key technologies, notably batteries, that have not matured to the required level to make the product viable. Airbus had set the goal for the aircraft to be able to transport four passengers up to 80-100km a number of times daily, but that capability has not been achieved. “We think that the technology that we imagined does not exist yet to launch a product,” explained Even. “We have learned a lot from the project, and we’ll continue to explore with City Airbus NextGen, but once the work of the present programme is finished, we will pause the programme.” When asked when the pause would start and how long the pause would be, Even replied, “Before the end of the year and for the foreseeable future.”
Image: Airbus
