Here in the hangar at Bristol – “where the toys are kept,” jokes Jackson – I spy the VA-X2 a full-scale prototype airframe which conducted its first free unmanned flight in 2019. With a reported range of up to 100 miles and a top speed of around 200mph, the VX4 is the latest in a line of prototypes aiming to fulfil CEO Stephen Fitzpatrick’s vision of ‘opening up urban air mobility to a whole new range of passengers’. The VX4 is the latest evolution of Vertical’s eVTOL concept: a four-passenger, single-pilot, unpressurised craft proposed to operate out of primarily urban areas. Perhaps it’s just as well this is only a simulation and I haven’t just crashed an expensive (although as-yet-undisclosed just how costly) aircraft. I bank sharply, but in my minds-eye, a single, sad, spinning rotor in the ensuing collision – tangled in a contortion of cables – when the screen goes blank has given us the first absolute answer of the day: whatever the pilot training pathway, I won’t be among the candidates. ‘Pilot in the loop’ simulator in action (Vertical Aerospace)Īmidst the company’s ambitious plans to achieve initial type certification for the VX4 as early as 2025, I’m clearly preoccupied with the complexities of this novel form of aerial conveyance – at least, that’s what I’ll later claim – as the Emirates cable car looms large before us.

So just how are Vertical – through the development of an entirely new category of aircraft such as this – aiming to ’open up urban air mobility and transform how we travel’? “Where the toys are kept” Indeed, although the concept of an eVTOL (electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing) craft is nothing ambiguous, there are certainly a lot of questions and answers yet to be defined prior to this project approaching entry into service. It can fly like a fixed-wing aircraft, but it’s not a fixed-wing aircraft,” he explains. “It can fly like a helicopter but it’s not a helicopter. Eight tilt-rotors whirr into life and we ascend vertically before a touch of rudder and throttle input guide us west, London City airport receding as our craft passes City Hall on the right, our shadow slipping across the water, and we prepare to round the Greenwich peninsula.Īmong my eager onlookers is Dominic Jackson – Market Development Manager at Vertical Aerospace – the company behind the VX4 that I’m currently in command of. Looking out across London, the iconic outline of the river Thames below, I grip the control column in my right hand and gently ease it backwards.

What’s it like to fly an eVTOL? Following successful initial tethered hover trials of Vertical Aerospace’s VX4, student pilot CHARLOTTE BAILEY visits its Bristol factory to experience its simulator and explore what a pilot training pathway might look like.

Sim airport or airport ceo