The CityAirbus follows other Airbus Urban Air Mobility initiatives:
Skyways to deliver packages by
UAVs on the
National University of Singapore campus, the
A³ Vahana single-passenger, self-piloted VTOL aircraft and the
A³ Voom on-demand shared helicopter booking service app by
Airbus. The
iron bird systems test prototype was completed and powered on in December 2017 on a
test bench in
Taufkirchen,
Germany, to test the propulsion system chain, flight controls and propeller dynamic loads, verifying the electric, mechanical and thermal dynamics before being installed on the flight demonstrator by mid-2018. The first structural parts for the demonstrator were produced by Airbus Helicopters. The aircraft's first uncrewed flight was on 3 May 2019. Crewed flights have been planned for 2019. 31 August 2020 the CityAirbus demonstrator moved from
Donauwörth to
Manching near
Ingolstadt in
Bavaria. After 242 flights over in total with the Vahana and CityAirbus demonstrators, Airbus updated the CityAirbus project in September 2021. As of mid-2025, one test flight has been advertised. EASA is already working on a
special condition VTOL (SC VTOL) means of compliance (MOC) to certify eVTOL aircraft. The final version of the MOC for eVTOLs will use newly developed
Eurocae standards. The second flight control computer will be developed in collaboration with
Diehl Aviation and
Thales. ==Design==