Britain’s flying taxi pioneer, Vertical Aerospace, has been handed another £8m grant from the government, taking its total taxpayer backing to £37m as it tries to get its electric aircraft off the ground.
The company said the funding to develop the propellers for its electric vertical take-off and landing (eVtol) aircraft was a “vote of confidence” in its technology, despite recent struggles.
Vertical’s VX4 aircraft crashed in a test flight in the Cotswolds in August. Its share price is more than 90% down in little over a year, and its billionaire founder, Stephen Fitzpatrick, invested another $50m (£40m) last month to keep the business going.
The £8m grant will meet half of Vertical’s development costs for its propellers and propulsion system, which it hopes will be lighter and quieter than existing technology.
Fitzpatrick, best known as the founder of the gas and electricity supplier Ovo Energy and the former owner of the Manor Formula One team, said the project would be “another major step towards delivering the next generation of novel electric aviation technologies in Britain”.
Vertical will lead a consortium from the aviation sector including engineers from British universities, as the UK looks to secure a place in a possible “future global market in urban air mobility”, where eVtols could supplant helicopters in providing a more socially acceptable form of rapid travel in and between cities.
The industry minister, Nusrat Ghani, said: “This exciting sustainable propeller project is a fantastic example of our commitment to our world-leading aviation sector, supporting high-skilled, high-paid jobs across the UK while developing technologies of the future.”
The grant comes via the UK Aerospace Technology Institute, which said the funding was “enabling the development of ultra-efficient and cross-cutting technologies in a competitive global market expected to be worth £24bn to the UK up to 2050”.
Vertical has been one of the higher-profile firms in the fledgling sector, last year getting design approval from the regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority, for a five-seater flying taxi capable of flying at up to 200mph.
Despite having orders from a number of international airlines, including American Airlines and Virgin Atlantic, investors have largely remained sceptical, and Vertical shares are trading at less than 70 cents in New York after peaking at more than $10 after its stock exchange float in December 2021.
Its German competitor Lilium on Tuesday announced a provisional order for 10 of its eVtol jets at the Singapore airshow. PhilJets said it hopes to launch a network serving the Philippines’ many islands.
