Vertical Aerospace has unveiled its new electric vehicle and takeoff (eVTOL) aircraft Valo at an exclusive high-profile event in London’s Canary Wharf.
Among the speakers on December 10, 2025, were Vertical Aerospace’s CEO, Stuart Simpson, and the UK’s Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, Darren Jones.
It was a significant moment for Vertical Aerospace as it looks to progress towards having its eVTOL aircraft certified in 2028, then entry into service following on shortly after.
Currently, Vertical is in the fourth and final stage flight test stage of its workhorse VX4 prototype. It will then move on to Valo, of which seven will be built to support final testing with the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
Unveiling the Valo mockup, Vertical said that its design had been “shaped by extensive insights from the company’s piloted test program and direct feedback from airline and operator customers”.
At the launch event, AeroTime spoke with Vertical’s Chief Test Pilot and former RAF aviator, Simon Davies, about the new Valo design and how airlines had influenced the product.
Vertical has around 1,500 pre-orders for its aircraft from customers that include American Airlines, Japan Airlines, GOL and Bristow. On the same day as the Valo launch, it also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Héli Air Monaco for a pre-order.
Davies said: “They want the ability to carry a decent number of passengers, plus their baggage, because they are looking at feeder services into airports. Airports to city centers or regional airports around the UK like Oxford or Cambridge to Heathrow – they are kind of tricky journeys at the moment.”
He added: “We can save a bunch of time for people and make that a point-to-point journey in 20 minutes that is currently two-plus hours, but they need to take their bags. So, we really listened to the customers, and we realized that its important as a differentiator for us in the market.”
At the launch event, Vertical laid out around 12 medium-sized suitcases next to the Valo mockup, suggesting that they could all fit inside the baggage bay.
Explaining how the new Valo design differed from the VX4 protype, Davies said: “When you look at Valo, the fuselage is a little bit smaller, a little bit shorter, so we have optimized that. We realized that some of the stuff was too big. The tail was a bit too big – bigger than it needed to be. We’ve optimized, made it smaller, more efficient to give us more range. The wing and the position of the motors and the propellers are almost identical [to VX4].”
He added: “A lot of that learning from the development of the prototype carries straight through to production, and that’s because of aerodynamics. The prop wing and prop interaction are very, very similar. We de-risk and take a whole chunk of risk out of the program. So, in a way, Valo has started flying already.”
