Vertical Aerospace was established in 2016 by Stephen Fitzpatrick with a goal to create a decarbonising air travel using the best technology from the aviation, energy and automotive industries. Vertical Aerospace believes passionately in the power of electric flight to change the way the world travels because we shouldn’t sacrifice our planet to get from point A to point B. In 2017 a team of six engineers designed and build tha first demonstrator model, working closely with regulators and iterating the technology along the way. In 2018 their first eVTOL aircraft was granted flight permission by the Civil Aviation Authority.
One of Verticals flagship aircrafts, VA-1X, is a piloted all-electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL), which is capable of carrying four passengers for 100 miles at a cruise speed of 150 mph. Testing is scheduled for 2021 followed by certification in 2024. With the potential to be quite and economical these aircrafts have been touted as the next big thing in passenger aircrafts. Vertical Aerospace states that their aircraft will be heavily automated, but still both regulations and the public will require a pilot for years to come. VA-1X will automatically respond to an obsticte on the landing pad and will pull away from any collision. Using multiple propellers that point upwards VA-1X takes off and rotates those propellers horizontally in order to gain speed, it aims to carry four passengers and a pilot over short distances more cheaply than a helicopter.
Airlines operate within a framework of strict regulations, so it is yet unknown how a entirely new category will enter the market and the airspace. Vertical’s CEO says that they are already working pretty closely with Uk and European regulators.
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Reducing carbon emission is important indeed. I only imagine that this vehicle would need to be very often recharged.