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)
Tag: Vertical Aerospace
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 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)
Vertical Aerospace Test Flies VX4 Electric Air Taxi
Aviation Week reports that Vertical Aerospace “has conducted the first tethered hover flight of the full-scale demonstrator for its VX4 electric air taxi, the startup staking the claim to be the first British company in 20 years to begin flight tests of a new aircraft.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
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)
Vertical Aerospace Secures $100M In Funds for VX4 Development
Aviation Week reports that Vertical Aerospace “has secured a $100 million funding line to bolster its finances as the UK startup ramps up spending on development of its VX4 electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxi.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
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 Pushes Back VX4 Certification to 2025
Aviation Week reported that Vertical Aerospace “has pushed back certification and first deliveries of its VX4 air taxi to 2025, from 2024, as it prepares to begin flight tests of its full-scale demonstrator in summer 2022.”
Full Story (Spaceflight Now)
Vertical Aerospace Expects VX4 to be Certified Concurrently with UK, Europe
Aviation Week reports that Vertical Aerospace “expects to certificate its VX4 air taxi concurrently with the UK and Europe, with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) agreeing to validate UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) type certification of the electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) aircraft.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)