Airbus appears to be serious about its "Vahana" project, aimed at creating an autonomous passenger drone network, and thinks testing can begin as early as 2017. [...]
Airbus is also working on a drone delivery service [...] and plans to start testing it at a Singapore university by mid-2017. The cargo-laden vehicles fly automated routes in "aerial corridors," then drop them off and send delivery notifications to customers.
— Engadget
Airbus engineers are dreaming up no small endeavor as laid out in the company's Future of Urban Mobility vision:
"Imagine landing at a major international airport after a long flight in an A380. Instead of suffering through a 90-minute taxi ride in the megacity’s gridlocked traffic, you hop into an electrically operated aerial vehicle from zenHOP, which brings you to your destination – landing on your chosen zenHUB – in just nine minutes. Too expensive? No, zenMOVE has found three other travellers who also want to get to the city centre. As a result, the flight costs no more than a taxi ride. On top of that, no need to worry about your luggage – zenLUGGAGE takes care of that – or your security, as zenCYBER protects your flight against hacker attacks."
↑ Illustration of Airbus' Skyways drone parcel delivery service, which will enter test mode on the campus of the National University of Singapore in mid-2017.
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4 Comments
Impressive!
We've been waiting for working jet packs for... 70 years or more? If these guys can pull it off, hooray! Otherwise, just add the new design to the heap...
What could go wrong?
The flying car concept has been around since the 1930s as well. The few that made it airborne were not very good airplanes and not very good cars. Most projects came to an 'abrupt' end. In a related vein, NASA is using taxpayer dollars to develop a 'supersonic' business jet. Just what the world needs! That project will also crater, but it is transparently a jobs program for NASA in the first place.
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