Building an electric air taxi is less about one dramatic first flight than about doing it over and over until regulators are convinced. Vertical Aerospace has just put a second aircraft in the air to help it get there faster.
The Bristol-based company said on Tuesday that its newest full-scale prototype completed its maiden piloted flight at its UK flight test centre, with test pilot Paul Stone at the controls at 8:49 BST on 5 June.
The flight followed a fresh Permit to Fly from the UK Civil Aviation Authority, granted after extensive ground testing, and it roughly doubles Vertical’s flight test capacity while its first prototype carries on with its own campaign.
This is not Vertical’s first time off the ground. The company flew its first untethered test flight back in 2023, made European history with a piloted wingborne flight last year, and completed a full two-way transition between vertical and winged flight in April, joining a tiny group of developers to manage that manoeuvre.
The point of the new jet is volume.
