Primarily for general aviation discussion, but other aviation topics are also welcome.
#1852303
'.. up to 1,000 lease orders, including 150 for Virgin Atlantic for hubs at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester .. up to 100 miles range..'

'ePie in the Sky' ?

https://www.businesstraveller.com/busin ... -aircraft/

[first thought: hubs at major international airports - won't likely clients have heavy bags, or do they follow by road ? :wink: ]
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#1852335
At least these are piloted tilt wing VTOL, not passenger-carrying autonomous polycopters.

They're probably aimed at the sort of business people who fly in with a briefcase and pen; eyeball supplier/customer; sign contract and go home. So no heavy luggage needed, and if there is they won't be the ones handling it. A lackey will have sent it ahead.

They do look fun.
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By Dave W
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1852360
Vertical are very good, have flown more than one vehicle already (unmanned for now, at least one at Kemble) and have the right people with pragmatism, realism and understanding.

They deserve to succeed, and it looks like they are.

Hooray!
kanga, G-BLEW, matspart3 and 3 others liked this
#1852393
My money has been on Vertical for some time.

Big money backing from Ovo Electricity and a solid team of engineers. Add partnering with Rolls Royce for electric motors and Honeywell for control systems and they seem set fair.

The amount of money on offer from the Government through Future Flight Challenge is eye watering and I’m sure some projects will be - ahem - aspirational but not VA.

One to watch :thumright:
Dave W, matspart3, gaznav liked this
By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1852445
This appeared on BBC South West news and they said they'd already flown a prototype, but no details of what that entailed.
#1852518
Vertical Aerospace has a very strong technical team, highly credible partners, and are well funded by Stephen Fitzpatrick at Ovo. If anybody can 'do it', they can.

However, that does not diminish the enormous technical and certification challenges involved in eVTOL, not to mention the market appetite (or not) for a type of service that does not yet exist, and the current absence of any infrastructure.

A 'slam-dunk' it ain't... for anybody. All that said, I wish them well in their quest.
#1852544
CloudHound wrote:Very sorry to hear you only have 2 years to live. :(

Thank you for your concern but from that BBC item cited by kanga I was thinking more of this:-
The carrier said that there are 37 towns and cities with populations over 100,000 within 100 miles of Heathrow...

Then again I may indeed have less that two years left, who knows, but I live in hope...(and no, that's not a town further than 100 miles from Heathrow.)
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By Genghis the Engineer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1852555
Having lots of money doesn't exempt you from the laws of physics of course. The Pipistrel Velis tells us what current technology is capable of - 2 people, no baggage, no VTOL, about 75 minutes with no reserves at about 65kts.

So from that to 6POB, VTOL, 130kts, 1hr+ presumably IFR reserves is a rather big step.

G
terrybarr liked this
#1852598
rf3flyer wrote:.. I live in hope...(and no, that's not a town further than 100 miles from Heathrow.)


.. although most, probably all, of the several places in UK called Hope are probably >100 miles from Heathrow :)

[the Derbyshire one, W of Sheffield, may be the closest]