Airbus has presented its fully electric CityAirbus NextGen prototype to the public ahead of its maiden flight later this year. The two tonne class CityAirbus, with a wing span of approximately 12 metres, is being developed to fly with a 80km range and to reach a cruise speed of 120km/h, making it perfectly suited for operations in major cities for a variety of missions.

The unveiling coincided with the opening of the CityAirbus test centre in Donauwörth, Germany, which will be dedicated to testing systems for eVTOL vehicles. The centre, which is part of Airbus' ongoing and long-term investment in advanced air mobility, began its operations with the CityAirbus NextGen's power-on in December 2023, and it will be now used for the remaining tests required before the prototype's maiden flight. These tests cover the electric motors with their eight rotors as well as the aircraft's other systems such as flight controls and avionics.

"Rolling out CityAirbus NextGen for the very first time is an important and very real step that we are taking towards advanced air mobility and our future product and market. Thank you to our community, team and partners all over the world for helping us make this a reality," says head of urban air mobility Balkiz Sarihan.

At the same time, Airbus is expanding its global network and partnerships to create a unique ecosystem that will foster a successful and viable AAM market. It recently signed a partnership agreement with LCI to focus on the development of partnership scenarios and business models in three core AAM areas: strategy, commercialisation and financing.