Vertical Aerospace Achieves First Battery-Powered Free Flight

Vertical Aerospace has achieved the first battery-powered free flight of its VX4 electric-vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) demonstrator, marking a milestone on the road to type certification for the Bristol, UK-based startup’s four-passenger air taxi. 

The first free flight of the VX4 took off from historic Cotswold Airport in Kemble, a village in Gloucestershire, England. During the flight, the aircraft lifted vertically, hovered, transitioned, flew horizontally and then landed, all by the thrust of its own propulsion system and powered by Vertical’s proprietary battery packs. 

The flight represents a milestone, as it was the first time the full-scale VX4 demonstrator flew untethered on its own batteries. Previous flights had all been tethered and connected to ground power.

“The aircraft was remarkably easy to fly,” Vertical’s Chief Test Pilot Justin Paines said in a statement following the flight. “It was rock-solid in stability and provided precise control even in demanding flight conditions such as hovering close to the ground. The aircraft leapt into a stable hover at lower rpm than expected, taking advantage of the ground effect cushion. Battery temperatures and state-of-charge remained well within predictions for the duration of flight.”

Unlike many other eVTOL startups, Vertical Aerospace has elected to perform all of its flight tests with piloted, full-scale vehicles from the outset of its testing and certification efforts. The company said the greater upfront time investment required by that approach–combined with other factors including a protracted Means of Compliance process with the UK Civil Aviation Authority–contributed to a recent decision to delay its certification target to late 2026, from 2025 previously.

Speaking to the AAM Report in May, Vertical CEO Stephen Fitzpatrick said he believes the company will benefit from its decision to forego testing with a subscale or remote prototype, which he said could slow down the certification process in the long run by requiring more extensive redesigns at a later stage. 

“We found that the weight increase when moving to a piloted version was so substantial that it really became an entirely different aircraft,” he said. “We thought it was a bit pointless building an unpiloted or remotely piloted aircraft that didn’t reflect the aircraft we actually needed to build to certify.”

But in order to finance the development of a full-scale prototype and proceed with its certification plan, Vertical will need to raise more funds, which Fitzpatrick previously told the AAM Report would occur “sometime in the next 12 months.”

The startup finished the March quarter with $131 million in pro forma liquidity, a fraction of the cash balance enjoyed by competing air taxi startups like Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation.