RuAviation

Vertical Aerospace has begun flight testing of the first full-scale prototype of its VX4 vertical take-off and landing electric aircraft. On 19 July, the UK-based company published images and video showing the convertoplane in flight at Cotswold Airport and confirmed that flight testing has been ongoing for several weeks.

During low altitude flights, the VX4 reached speeds of up to 74km/h. The aircraft was controlled remotely and flights were also conducted in hover mode with some forward progression. The company reports that the initial results exceeded expectations and the data obtained will help it improve the performance of the four-seater.

The prototype is fitted with universal series electric motors, with a new electric propulsion system coming later – its development is being led by Rolls-Royce. The electric motors were powered by Vertical’s battery packs, developed at Vertical Aerospace’s new centre in Bristol. The company began flight testing in a hangar at Cotswold Airport back in September 2022, the prototype was not released for free flight at that time but was tethered. Later this year, Vertical Aerospace plans to attach a second prototype to the flight test programme. The company intends to obtain type certification in the UK and EASA by the end of 2026. The VX4 will have a maximum speed of 320 kilometres per hour and a power plant capacity of 1 MW. The noise level is less than 50 dB in cruising flight and less than 70 dB during hovering.

In addition to Rolls-Royce, the other partners in the VX4 convertible aircraft programme are GKN, which manufactures the wing and the power cable interconnection system. Honeywell is providing the aircraft’s remote control systems.

In May, South Korea’s Kakao Group became the latest potential operator of the VX4, signing a pre-order for 50 aircraft. The company, which has about 30 million users of the ride-booking app, will form a joint working group with Vertical to prepare for commercial air mobility services in South Korea. Other commitments to sell the aircraft, which will have an initial range of about 160 kilometres, have come from American Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Japan Airlines, Gol, Bristow and AirAsia, as well as leasing groups Avolon and Marubeni, FutureFlight reported.

Just a few years ago, building an aircraft powered by electric motors with battery power alone seemed not just a fantasy, but an impossible task due to the heavy weight and low electrical capacity of the power sources. Today, in Europe, the USA, Japan and South Korea, airworthiness standards have already been approved, and companies developing aircraft in this area intend to put their products into commercial operation in the form of air taxis in 2024-2025, in particular, it is planned to organise transportation by electric air taxis in Paris during the next summer Olympics-2024. In Russia, several companies are working on this topic, the best known of which are Ecolibri and Transport of the Future.

Alexey Rogozin, Chairman of the Scientific and Technical Council of Ecolibri and ex-head of Il, noted in his commentary on the start of flight tests of the VX4 convertoplane that the first steps towards electric aviation have already been made in Russia. However, Russia’s Ecolibri vertical take-off and landing aircraft is still at an earlier stage of development, although work on it is actively underway.

“At the same time, there is a feeling that the real incentive to accelerate work in Russia will be the beginning of mass operation of such equipment abroad. Among the leaders now are the US, South Korea, Brazil, the UK and Germany. They will quickly realise the disadvantages of a purely electric scheme, add a series hybrid to the power plant, and that’s it, we will have to catch up once again. Although there is still a window of opportunity to become leaders, two or three years, no more,” he shared his opinion in Telegram.