Airbus' autonomous, electric air taxi has successfully made its first test flight, after plans for its development were released back in January 2017.
The personal passenger aircraft, otherwise known as Vahana, flew fully self-piloted at 8:52 am on 31 January 2018 in Pendleton, Oregon, reaching a height of five metres (16 feet) for a duration of 53 seconds.
"Today we are celebrating a great accomplishment in aerospace innovation," said Zach Lovering, project executive of Vahana.
"In just under two years, Vahana took a concept sketch on a napkin and built a full-scale, self-piloted aircraft that has successfully completed its first flight."
Airbus plans to roll out fleet of flying taxis
Vahana is a project developed at A³, the Silicon Valley branch of Airbus. The company announced its plans to fly the aerial vehicle last January at the DLD digital tech conference in Munich. In his keynote speech at the conference, Airbus CEO Tom Enders stated that the company would be investing in driverless technologies and artificial intelligence, which could lead to them developing a fleet of flying cars.

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