Tag: Vertical Aerospace

Vertical Aerospace Completes VX4 Phase One Testing

Reuters reports, “UK-based Vertical Aerospace has completed the first phase of piloted testing of a prototype of its air-taxi, VX4, it said on Thursday, sending the company’s shares up 3.9% in U.S. premarket trading. The VX4 has 1,500 pre-orders worth $6 billion from companies including Virgin Atlantic, American Airlines and Japan Airlines. The phase one testing included multiple piloted tethered flights and ground runs. It completed 70 individual test points to validate its safety in the real-world flight scenarios.”
Full Story (Reuters)

Vertical Aerospace Begins Ground Testing New Air Taxi Prototype

Flying Magazine reports, “U.K.-based electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxi manufacturer Vertical Aerospace is back to testing aircraft. The manufacturer has begun ground testing a new, more advanced full-scale prototype of its flagship VX4 air taxi after an initial prototype was damaged during an uncrewed flight test last year.”
Full Story (Flying Magazine)

Norway Considers Grounding Sikorsky Helicopters After Fatal Crash

Reuters reports, “Norway on Thursday halted all helicopter traffic to its offshore oil and gas fields after a deadly crash, and said it was considering grounding Sikorsky’s S-92A aircraft model while investigating the accident.” During a search and rescue mission Wednesday, one occupant was killed and five others were injured when a “helicopter plunged into the ocean off western Norway … police and oil company officials said.”
Full Story (Reuters)

Vertical Aerospace Pushes EVOTL Certification to Late 2026

Aviation International News reports that Vertical Aerospace “expects it will need at least an additional 12 months to certify its VX-4 eVTOL.” A letter to company shareholders said a review of the UK-based public company’s program timeline “has resulted in a decision by the management team to target certification by late 2026.” Vertical previously “indicated the four-passenger vehicle could be approved in 2025.” The letter cited ongoing air safety regulation work in the UK, Europe, the US, and Japan, with regulatory differences between the countries explaining the additional time required.
Full Story (Aviation International News)

Slingshot 1 Provides Aerospace Corp with Demonstration of Satellite Integration

Space News reports that through the Slingshot 1 mission, the Aerospace Corp. “has demonstrated how open standards and nonproprietary interfaces can help streamline satellite integration and operation.” Aerospace Slingshot Payload Operator David Hinkley said that after more than a year of on-orbit operations, Slingshot “has been a huge success.” The 19 Slingshot payloads “were developed independently and integrated in a couple of weeks prior to launch in July 2022 of the 12-unit cubesat on a Virgin Orbit LauncherOne rocket.” Speedy integration “was possible thanks to Handle, a modular plug-and-play interface that allows payloads to draw power from the satellite bus and to communicate with the satellite and other payloads.”
Full Story (Space News)

Vertical Aerospace’s Air Taxi Prototype Appears to Have Crashed

Aerospace America reports that a remotely piloted air taxi prototype “appears to have crashed during testing at the company’s Flight Test Centre at Cotswold Airport, based on photos posted online by local journalists.” Vertical Aerospace confirmed that its VX4 all-electric “experimental prototype” was involved in an “incident” at the test center, and said “there were no injuries.” The statement “was made in a note filed today to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).” Vertical is “required to reveal ‘results of operations’ and other significant developments to SEC because its shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange.” The company told the SEC, “Our flight test programme is designed to establish the limits of the aircraft’s performance, and the incident occurred during an uncrewed test of the aircraft’s maneuverability during a motor failure test scenario, which is a key requirement to progress to crewed operations.”
Full Story (Aerospace America)

Vertical Aerospace Begins Untethered Flight Tests

Aerotime reports, “British eVTOL developer Vertical Aerospace has conducted the first untethered flight of its VX4 prototype, kicking off Phase Two of its development program. Until now Vertical Aerospace had conducted piloted flight tests, but with the aircraft always tethered to the ground by a cable.”
Full Story (Aerotime)

NASA Conducting Research Flights with Sikorsky Autonomy Research Aircraft

Aviation Today reports that NASA pilots and researchers “began conducting research flights with the Sikorsky Autonomy Research Aircraft, or SARA, in March. The system uses Sikorsky’s MATRIX Technology that is designed to enable operators to autonomously fly any aircraft, or to fly an aircraft as an optionally piloted vehicle.” The pilots and researchers “performing these flight tests are part of NASA’s Integration of Automated Systems (IAS) effort within the Advanced Air Mobility National Campaign program.” NASA’s team has partnered with Sikorsky and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to start a “new series of flight test campaigns in the past couple of weeks to continue exploring autonomous technologies.” The “new test flights involve determining how well the SARA platform can interpret a flight path’s four-dimensional trajectories into primitive commands and then follow those commands.”
Full Story (Aviation Today)

American Airlines Reserves an Order of 50 Air Taxis from Vertical Aerospace

Reuters reported that American Airlines will be making “pre-delivery payments” for 50 electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft from British Vertical Aerospace. American made a $1 billion deal with Vertical last year, for up to 250 of the aircraft, which “can carry four passengers and a pilot” at up to 200 mph for over 100 miles. Last year, Vertical Aerospace announced orders from Virgin Atlantic as well.
Full Story (Reuters)
 
 
 

 

 Video

Vertical Aerospace VA-X4 Animation
(Delta Charlie Aviation via YouTube)

Vertical Aerospace Announces Development of Long-Range Hybrid Air-Taxi Variant of its VX4

Reuters reports, “Vertical Aerospace said on Monday it is developing a long-range hybrid-electric variant of its air-taxi VX4, aiming to expand into commercial markets including defense and logistics. U.S.-listed shares of the British electric aircraft firm rose more than 6% before the bell.”
Full Story (Reuters)

 

Video

VX4 eVTOL Test Flight
Vertical Aerospace

Bristow Doubles Pre-Orders of Vertical Aerospace’s VX-4

Flight Global reports, “Vertical Aerospace is to join forces with Bristow Group to establish what is effectively a wet-leasing operation focused on the electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft developer’s VX4. An expansion of an existing ‘strategic partnership’ dating from 2021, the agreement also sees helicopter operator Bristow double its pre-orders and options for the VX-4, increasing both to as many as 50 units.”
Full Story (Flight Global)

Vertical Performs Piloted Thrustborne eVTOL Flight Test

Aerotime reports, “UK-based electric vehicle takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft developer Vertical Aerospace has become only the second company in the world to perform a piloted thrustborne flight test in a full-scale vectored thrust aircraft. The full-scale eVTOL aircraft, known as VX4, took off on January 7, 2024, with pilot Simon Davies at the controls, at the Vertical Aerospace test center at Cotswold Airport (GBA).”
Full Story (Aerotime)