By Cheyenne Macdonald For Dailymail.com
Published: 23:05 BST, 21 June 2019 | Updated: 23:20 BST, 21 June 2019
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A radical electric passenger drone developed by Airbus has completed its first full transition flight, proving its ability to take off vertically and accelerate to over 100 miles per hour before slowing down for a soft landing.
Vahana, the project working to bring the craft to life under Airbus’s innovation arm, shared incredible footage of the accomplishment this week.
The test marked Vahana’s 66th flight, a number it has since surpassed by more than a dozen.
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A radical electric passenger drone developed by Airbus has completed its first full transition flight, proving its ability to take off vertically and accelerate to nearly 100 miles per hour before slowing down for a soft landing
In a blog post announcing the milestone, Vahana’s Zach Lovering said the test ‘represents everything we set out to achieve when we began our flight test campaign.’
The successful full transition flight was performed on May 3 in Oregon.
‘In the video, you’ll see Vahana take off vertically and then accelerate forward, much like in other videos we’ve shared,’ Lovering explains.
‘This time, however, Vahana’s wing and canard rotate to the full cruise configuration as the aircraft speeds up to 90 knots (over 100 mph).
‘Once the vehicle reaches cruising speed, the transition is complete and the vehicle begins to decelerate preparing for its descent and skids down!’
Vahana, the project working to bring the craft to life under Airbus’s innovation arm, shared incredible new footage this week. The test marked Vahana’s 66th flight, a number it has since surpassed by more than a dozen
The craft took its first flight in February 2018 after just two years of development.
During that test, it climbed to a height of 16 feet (five metres) before successfully returning to the ground at 8:52am PT (11.52am ET / 4.52pm GMT).
Since then, it’s lifted off dozens of times.
Vahana’s single-seater air taxi is a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) craft, meaning it doesn’t need a runway
