Driverless flying carrier under construction

An autonomous electric plane which takes off and lands like a helicopter could carry passengers or cargo in five years.

A prototype dubbed Vahana is being tested at Oregon airport by Airbus before deciding early next year whether it will continue building the aircraft for possible service by 2022, Fast Company reports.

Airbus’s A3 (A Cubed) division in Silicon Valley provided an artist’s impression in February. Fast Company then visited A3’s Nest hangar in Santa Clara in July for a no-photos peek at two of the carbon-fibre electric planes under construction.

This is the first time A3 has released photos of the craft being built.

“We’re not banking on Vahana, exactly what it looks like today, to be a winner,” A3 chief executive officer (and original Vahana project head) Rodin Lyasoff says. “But all of the pieces that go into Vahana, all of the analysis…put us in the right place at the right time and give us the ability to be where we need to be.”

These Vahana (Sanskrit for vehicle) have room for one passenger but will fly empty during the tests.

In future they may carry several people, or perhaps just cargo, Lyasoff says.

Each has eight propellers with electric motors on wings that tilt upward for vertical take-off and landing (VTOL), so it can get into tight urban spaces. The wings tilt forward for flight like a plane.

Airbus aims to build a fleet to fly from rooftop to rooftop in dense cities.

More than 19 companies are reportedly developing “flying car” type plans.