Airbus’ Vahana Makes Its First Flight—And Now Must Defeat Bureaucracy | WIRED
Alpha One, as this prototype is dubbed, is a full-scale demonstrator of a single-person, vertical take-off and landing aircraft. The idea behind this thing and its many competitors is to remake the way we fly. Instead of piling dozens or hundreds of people into big jets that fly back and forth between airports, these little VTOL aircraft would work much like personal cars, taking a few people (or just one) on short trips in and around cities, making full use of the third dimension to blast traffic jams into the past. (This is why we dig the term “flying car”—even if the things don’t drive on the ground, they serve the function of a car, and they fly.)