Air-Taxi Startup Vertical to Pause Flight Tests After Crash
A Vertical VX4 eVTOL flying taxi at the Farnborough International Airshow in Farnborough, UK, in 2022.
Photographer: Jason Alden/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
The crash of Vertical Aerospace Ltd.’s only electric air-taxi prototype this week will force the startup to pause flight tests until regulators complete an investigation.
The VX4, a five-person tilt-rotor craft, crashed on Aug. 9 during a flight test at Cotswold Airport, the UK company said in a regulatory filing this week. The exercise was meant to test maneuverability during a staged motor failure, a key requirement to progress to crewed operations.