Airbus' Self-Flying Taxi Drone Takes First Flight

(Credit: Airbus) Airbus first announced its plans to create a self-flying taxi service in 2016. On Jan. 31, after two years of planning and building, it proved it isn’t just a pipedream — the Vahana successfully completed its first flight test. The full-scale aircraft flew fully autonomously for 53 seconds at an altitude of 16 feet (gotta start somewhere) at its testing grounds in Pendleton, Oregon. It conducted another flight the following day, which seems to have gone well, too. The FAA was in attendance of the flight tests. “Our goal is to democratize personal flight by leveraging the latest technologies such as electric propulsion, energy storage, and machine vision,” Zach Lovering, Vahana project executive, wrote in a Medium post. Only one person can fit in the electric VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) drone. It measures about 20 feet wide, 19 feet long, 9 feet high and weighs more than ...