Pilotless aircraft, flying electric vehicles and bespoke air
cabins are the future of flight, Airbus said Thursday.
Paul Eremenko, the European plane-maker’s chief technological
officer, painted a picture of skies buzzing with new flight forms at the RISE
tech conference held in Hong Kong.
Airbus is already testing out what it calls a “module” cabin
concept-passenger planes being tailored to different demands.
“You can imagine on a flight to Vegas, you might have a
casino module,” said Eremenko.
“Or in a more general sense, you may have a sleeping module
and you go and pay 50 bucks an hour to have the ability to sleep in a
sound-proof, climate-controlled area,” he added.
Eremenko said Airbus had been working on the project for a
year already, including user trials.
Airbus has also been working on a self-piloted flying car,
the Vahana, with testing on a full-size prototype to be done by the end of the
year.
“Our goal really is to open up the third dimension in cities
and we believe that the time is right,” said Eremenko, describing the growth of
mega-cities, increasing congestion and technological developments as factors
fuelling the development of electric short-hop flight travel.
Pilotless flight was also on the cards, he said, playing
down safety fears.
“We believe the first autonomy will come in the domain of
urban air mobility where the vehicles are smaller and there are fewer
occupants,” he said, adding it was easier to fly autonomously than to drive
autonomously.
“That, I have fairly high confidence that we will get to in
single-digit years,” he said, adding the problem was not a technical one but of
social acceptance.
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