Watch Airbus' Flying Car, Vahana, Make its First Flight

[Announcer] This is the moment Airbus's

vision of the future, a flying car

left the ground for the very first time.

First flight is always a tense moment,

but for the team at A-cubed, the plane builder's

Silicon Valley Outpost, it was a particularly proud one.

The Harner, as this new aircraft is called,

is revolutionary, and could one day save us

from traffic jams by making use of the third dimension.

On January 31st, engineers got a break

in the weather, just as the sun came up.

They wheeled the personal air transport vehicle,

aka flying car, out onto the tarmac

at Oregon's Pendleton Test Range.

They spun up its eight propellors

and lifted off for 53 seconds in the air.

That may not sound like much, but aerospace experts say

experimental aircraft like this mark the start

of a fundamental change in the way we'll get around.

Other companies are getting in on this action, too.

Most notably, Uber, with its plans for an air taxi service,

which could be operational over cities

like Dallas and Dubai in just two years.

As this conceptual rendering shows, the company wants

to give rides between the tops of tall buildings

to passengers who reserve a seat on their app.

Uber's hoping to capitalize on all the companies making

advances in materials, electric batteries and propulsion

and sophisticated computer controls.

All those things are coming together

to make flying cars real.

In April last year, Germany's Lilium

Jet showed its own prototype aircraft.

It'll be able to take off vertically

and then fly horizontally at high speed.

China's E-Hang is building a passenger-carrying drone

it says will launch first in Duabi.

And there's Aeromobil in Slovakia

and Terrifugia in Massachusetts.

Joby Aviation in China promises its own electric

vertical takeoff and landing service within five years.

The final call on whether these aircraft are safe

enough to fly over US cities will fall to the FAA,

which is in the process of working out how to

classify this new class of vehicles, which aren't really

helicopters, but aren't planes, either.

The Vahana team is already planning its next round

of tests to demonstrate that its vehicle is safe

to fly and ready for passengers.