Earlier this week, Vertical Aerospace completed a piloted two-way transition from vertical take off to wing borne flight and back from wing borne to thrust borne for a vertical landing became the second company globally to complete a two-way making it the first eVTOL developer in Europe to pass the milestone and only the third after Beta and Joby to make the leap. It is also the first such eVTOL design to complete the process under the more stringent UK CAA /EASA 10 to -9 standard.
Speaking about the flight, Stuart Simpson, CEO of Vertical Aerospace, said: “This is now the most significant technical milestone in our history. Full piloted transition is the most critical and complex challenge in eVTOL development, and we’ve achieved it under more rigorous regulatory oversight than anyone in the category. We’re not just participating in this industry – we are helping to define it. Our focus now is on executing our roadmap and bringing certified electric flight into commercial service.”
While a critical milestone has been achieved the Vertical says the two in service prototypes will continue to be used for transition envelope expansion as well for public demonstrations of the aircraft before moving on to testing of the hybrid propulsion system.
In addition, the company will move on to the next stage of certification testing and development of the Valo including a critical design review and the construction of seven pre-production Valos intended for compliance and verification testing with the UK CAA and EASA.
Image: Vertical Aerospace
