Vertical Aerospace has unveiled the cabin design for its certification-standard VX4 eVTOL, days ahead of commencing transition flight testing of the prototype aircraft.
It has shown off a four-seat cabin, but also an option for a six-seat layout, as well as a cockpit observer’s seat next to the pilot.
The design features a privacy and safety divider between the cockpit and passenger cabin, and behind the cabin is a cargo hold for luggage which will have a 550kg payload capability at service entry.
Speaking during a third-quarter briefing, chair Domhnal Slattery said the company would have the “most versatile eVTOL in the market”.
He claims that “no other competitor” can offer the VX4’s scalability from four to six seats, providing an avenue to increased revenues and lower costs per seat-mile.
Vertical plans to reveal the full-size aircraft design at an event in London on 10 December.
Piloted transition testing will begin “as soon as this week”, the company states. Chief executive Stuart Simpson says this testing will be “completed within weeks”.
Vertical has outlined five profiles for the transition campaign, each comprising two or three flights.
These profiles will cover such aspects as speed expansion, conventional take-off to thrustborne landing, and vertical take-off to conventional landing.
The ultimate aim is to take off vertically, transition to wingborne cruise, and transition back to thrustborne flight for a vertical landing.
Vertical describes this as the “key engineering proof point and critical de-risking step” for the VX4.
It says the preparations for the transition testing have included completing “extensive” simulation, ground and flight tests in collaboration with the UK civil aviation regulator, in order to satisfy some 200 minimum safe aircraft requirements.
