Leonardo; Vertical Aerospace Collab On VX4 Fuselage Development Yesterday, Vertical Aerospace announced the agreement between themselves and Leonardo to collaborate on fuselage development as it relates to the VX4 eVTOL aircraft. Vertical Aerospace has alot of orders to fulfill but just because there are orders it means very little if you cannot get the aircraft to come off the rendering monitors and into reality as a full-certified passenger aircraft. This collaboration will see a tangible transition towards building the real aircraft but with a caviat. The collaboration is for an initial six certification aircraft but may scale up to mass production of 2,000 VX4s per year, to meet Vertical’s pre-order book.
Vertical and Leonardo will work together on optimizing lightweight composite structures, modular design, systems installation, and structural testing for the co-development of the aircraft’s fuselage. This is currently in place for at least six certification aircraft, up to the successful certification of the VX4. The agreement has also stated the potential to scale fuselage production to 2,000 aircraft a year. Vertical has what it believes is the largest conditional pre-order book (by value) in the eVTOL industry, of up to 1,350 aircraft worth $5.4 billion from American Airlines, Avolon, Bristow and Iberojet, including pre-order options from Virgin Atlantic and Marubeni, and through Avolon’s placements, airlines JAL and Gol. Just in case you are not familiar with the VX4 from Vertical Aerospace, it is a near silent, entirely electric, piloted aircraft that can fly at speeds up to 200mph. It is carded to have a range of over 100 miles. With a four-passenger capacity, the zero operating emissions VX4 will also have a low cost per passenger mile, similar to that of a taxi. For more information: Vertical Aerospace Group Ltd. Unit 1, Camwal Court, Chapel Street Bristol, BS2 0UW www.vertical-aerospace.com ***
