Vertical prepares to enter penultimate phase of flight testing
February 4, 2025
Vertical Aerospace is preparing to enter the penultimate stage of its flight test campaign, having successfully completed its second piloted testing phase from its Kemble, UK facility.
Since first publicly unveiling its second full-scale aircraft in July 2024, Vertical Aerospace continues to diligently work through successive elements of its ongoing VX4 flight test campaign. Now having successfully completed its piloted thrustborne elements, the Bristol-based company is looking to commence crewed wingborne flight – a world first for a full-scale tiltrotor-configured eVTOL.
“It’s incredible to see how far we’ve come – from the first tethered flights just months ago to now successfully completing thrustborne testing,” enthused Simon Davies, Vertical’s chief test pilot, who described the aircraft as performing “exceptionally, being just as stable and simple to fly as [Vertical’s] simulations”. He added that this phase of testing offered “valuable insights into [the VX4’s] reliability and responsiveness under more demanding scenarios,” emulating “key flight manoeuvres in real-world conditions”.
Acknowledging how 2025 has started “with incredible momentum,” CEO of Vertical Aerospace Stuart Simpson added he was “incredibly excited to be on the cusp of another historic moment” as Vertical prepares for its “most advance stage of testing yet” – wingborne flight. This “defining moment” will also see the craft fly beyond the limits of the airfield’s secure airspace and “into real-world-operating conditions for the first time”.
Vertical is now working with the UK Civil Aviation Authority to expand its Permit to Fly, during which time it will continue to perform “important system and component testing as well as progressing the development of an identical full-scale prototype which will accelerate the VX4’s flight test programme and demonstration capability”.
Following receipt of expanded regulatory permission, the next phase of flight test will see the VX4 take off, fly and land like a conventional aircraft, generating lift from its fixed wings rather than its rotors – described by Vertical as “a major leap forward on the path to full certification and commercial viability”. Following the completion of wingborne flight, “the aircraft will have, in effect, completed a mini-certification process with this prototype,” concluded Vertical.
Following the final phase of transition testing, Vertical hopes to have the VX4 certified as soon as 2028.
