Vertical Aerospace completes thurstborne test flight program
Vertical Aerospace announced on February 4, 2025, that it had successfully completed Phase 2 in its piloted flight test program for its VX4 prototype eVTOL aircraft.
The thrustborne stage of the testing process, which has now been completed, includes the vertical takeoff and hovering phase of the flight, as well as low speed maneuvers over a small, delimited area.
Vertical Aerospace started its piloted thrustborne tests in early January 2025 at Cotswold Airport (GBA), in England, and has since performed more than 30 piloted flights.
Both Vertical Aerospace’s CEO, Stuart Simpson, and its Chief Test Pilot, Simon Davies, expressed their satisfaction with the performance of the VX4 test aircraft in a press release announcing this milestone in the company’s path to certification.
Davies highlighted the stability and simplicity of handling of the VX4, which behaved as expected from the experience accumulated in simulators.
The next stage in Vertical Aerospace’s testing program will be performing piloted wingborne flight tests, in which the aircraft will be flown as a conventional aircraft, taking off, cruising and landing horizontally using the lift generated by the aircraft’s wings.
In order to be able to move on to this new phase of its development, the startup is awaiting the Permit to Fly from the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
Wingborne testing is the next to last step in the whole testing program, which will include, as a final step, transition flight testing, in which the VX4 aircraft will transition from vertical to forward flight mode.
This announcement adds to other major developments at Vertical Aerospace in the first weeks of 2025, which have seen the appointment of Dómhnal Slattery as the company’s new Chairman and the closing of a US$90 million funding round through a public share offering.
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The post Vertical Aerospace completes thurstborne test flight program appeared first on AeroTime.
Vertical Aerospace announced on February 4, 2025, that it had successfully completed Phase 2 in its piloted flight…
The post Vertical Aerospace completes thurstborne test flight program appeared first on AeroTime.
