Finally, A Flying Electric Taxi Actually Went Somewhere
Image Credit: Vertical Aerospace.
Flying taxis. You know the story. By the year 2000, we were supposed to be all zipping around in personal aerial pods, waving smugly at the gridlocked peeps below. It's 2025, and my driveway is disappointingly free of anything that can take off vertically.
The promises have mostly resulted in concepts that look like a garden shed had an unfortunate affair with a drone. But something genuinely interesting just happened over the green fields of England. A British company, Vertical Aerospace, has been beavering away on their vision of our airborne future, a machine they call the VX4.
Image Credit: Vertical Aerospace.
Unlike most of these projects, which are usually tethered and flying inside a very large hangar, Vertical's prototype just completed its first proper trip. It flew from one airport to another, like a real, grown-up airplane. A 17-mile hop, to be precise, from their test center at Cotswold Airport to the Royal International Air Tattoo, a massive military airshow.
Flying 17 miles might not sound like Lindbergh crossing the Atlantic, but it's a monumental step. The VX4, with a pilot on board, climbed to 1,800 feet and hit a top speed of 115 mph. And then it landed at a public event. Imagine the scene: You've got the world's most advanced, thunderous fighter jets on display, and then this sleek, multi-rotor pod descends quietly from the heavens, in a true "golf cart turning up to a monster truck rally" moment.
Image Credit: @airtattoo.
What is this machine that's daring to share airspace with military titans? The VX4 is an eVTOL, which stands for "electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing" - a helicopter-airplane hybrid, powered by batteries. It's designed to carry a pilot and four passengers, which puts it squarely in "air taxi" territory.
Since developing new aircraft costs a fortune, Vertical has roped in some heavy hitters like Honeywell and GKN Aerospace to handle the tricky bits - the flight controls and the "proprietary" battery and propeller tech. "Proprietary," as we know, is industry-speak for "very clever and please don't ask how much it costs."
Image Credit: Vertical Aerospace.
The world is impressed with the VX4 and it seems the checkbooks are open. Vertical says it has a staggering 1,500 pre-orders. These aren't just from optimistic billionaires, either - American Airlines and Japan Airlines are one of the first customers.
But the biggest customer so far is Bristow, a major helicopter operator. They've put in for 50 VX4s with an option for 50 more, and they're partnering with Vertical to offer a "turnkey" service. That means customers won't just buy the aircraft; they'll get the pilots, maintenance, and insurance all bundled in. It's basically a subscription service for your own private airline.
Image Credit: @airtattoo.
Now for the dose of gentle reality. Electric vehicles, whether on the ground or in the air, share the same nemesis: the battery. A 17-mile flight is a fantastic proof of concept, but it won't get you from New York to pretty much anywhere sensible.
The current vision for these eVTOLs is for short, frequent trips - whisking people from an airport to a city center, flying over the traffic jams we were supposed to have escaped by now. It's a brilliant idea for sure, but the range is a bit of a problem.
Image Credit: Vertical Aerospace.
This is where the story takes a fascinating, but slightly ironic twist. To solve the range problem, Vertical is developing a hybrid version. Simple, yet effective. After 18 months of quiet development, the company announced a plan to create a VX4 that can fly for up to 1,000 miles and carry a payload of over 2,000 pounds.
And how will they achieve this remarkable feat of electric aviation? By fitting it with a gas turbine generator that burns conventional jet fuel. This idea is on the level with putting a diesel generator in the trunk of your Tesla to charge it on the go. You have to admire the bold pragmatism.
Image Credit: Vertical Aerospace.
This hybrid model will start flight-testing in 2026, but it isn't really for you and me to skip the morning commute. It's for the far more demanding jobs: defense, logistics, and air ambulance services, where the ability to fly long distances without stopping to recharge is not a luxury but a necessity. It's a sensible compromise, even if it does make the "electric" part of the branding feel a little diluted.
Of course, getting there is a long and winding road paved with certifications. Before its big day out at the airshow, the VX4 had already completed over 30 piloted test flights, proving it could hover, turn on a dime, and generally behave itself at low speeds.
Image Credit: Vertical Aerospace.
The next great challenge is what they call "transition" testing - the crucial phase where the aircraft switches from flying straight up like a helicopter to flying forward like a plane, with its wings generating lift. It's the trickiest part of the whole equation. A rival, Joby Aviation, has already cracked this with a pilot on board, so the race is well and truly on.
This whole endeavor is, naturally, fantastically expensive. Vertical recently rustled up another $60 million to keep the lights on and the propellers spinning. It takes a village of brilliant engineers and a mountain of cash to build the future. What we're seeing here is no longer just a fantasy on a drawing board. It's a real, flying machine that has tasted open airspace and landed in front of the public.
