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Airbus has announced the first takeoff of its electric urban air mobility demonstrator, CityAirbus.
According to an Airbus spokesperson, the program has now achieved one of the key milestones in its demonstration program: a tethered “jump” that was conducted from Airbus’s facilities in Donauwörth, Germany. “This was meant to further assess the performance of the propulsion and flight control systems, as well as a few other data points,” the spokesperson said.
The demonstration program will now move to Manching, Germany, where the flight envelope opening will be carried out in a restricted airspace.
The 2.2-tonne aircraft is fully electric, operating at 800 volts with four batteries. It is designed to carry four passengers for operations in an urban environment.