Vertical advances certification with second Valo eVTOL prototype flight

On June 9, Vertical Aerospace (London, U.K.) announced its latest full-scale prototype vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft had completed its maiden piloted flight at the company’s Flight Test Centre in the U.K., marking the start of an expanded flight test campaign.

The flight follows the issuance of a new Permit to Fly from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) after extensive ground testing and aircraft validation activities. Meanwhile, Vertical’s existing prototype continues transition flight testing, having completed multiple piloted transition flights.

The new prototype is the final aircraft to join Vertical’s flight test fleet before the company completes critical design review (CDR). Following CDR, Vertical will begin preparations for assembly of its first pre-production aircraft as it continues toward certification and commercial service.

This aircraft doubles the company’s flight testing capacity and supports additional public demonstrations in 2026. Following the completion of all flight test phases — thrustborne, wingborne and transition flight — in its all-electric configuration, Vertical intends to retrofit this prototype for hybrid-electric flight testing. The hybrid-electric variant is expected to support applications demanding greater range and payload capability across defense, logistics and wider commercial sectors.

The prototype shares the same configuration as Vertical’s current full-scale aircraft, which has already completed all flight test phases. The company’s flight test program is built around full-scale, piloted prototype aircraft with architecture, systems and flight characteristics closely aligned to the production-standard Valo aircraft, enabling the company to validate the technologies, systems integration and flight models that will support certification.