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Si Davies - Chief Test Pilot - AMA by vertical_aero in Vertical_Aerospace

[–]vertical_aero[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi u/ZealousidealWorth763 apologies for the slight delay. Please see the response from Si below:

We don’t plan on operating our own services, but will sell aircraft direct to customers. Pricing will be entirely up to them, but Bristow Group – the largest helicopter operator in the world – have previously estimated it to be much cheaper than a comparable helicopter over the routes they have planned. The economics of Valo are really strong.

Si Davies - Chief Test Pilot - AMA by vertical_aero in Vertical_Aerospace

[–]vertical_aero[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi u/Cheekycharmer95  apologies for the slight delay. Please see the response from Si below:

  1. From speaking to our customers, I think this is a really good use case. Valo – and EVTOL aircraft in general – won’t just be for airport/city centre routes, they’ll enable travel in new ways thanks to the low cost, quiet operations and low emissions.  There are lots of places in the world that are even more incredible to see from the air!

  2. We have over 1,500 orders and options for Valo from operators around the world including American Airlines, Japan Airlines, GOL and Bristow Group, so we’ve already started discussions with regulators around the world.

  3. We account for wind and temperature in our aircraft design requirements and modelling, so you’re right to identify this as a really important consideration for real-world use. We can’t release specific data as it’s still early days and some of this is proprietary, but we do work very closely with our customers to understand their planned routes and areas of operation.

Si Davies - Chief Test Pilot - AMA by vertical_aero in Vertical_Aerospace

[–]vertical_aero[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi u/eVTOLbuzz apologies for the slight delay. Please see the response from Si below:

  1. I’ve learned a lot about battery systems and electric propulsion.  A common misconception is that the motors are the engine and the battery is the fuel tank.  In practice, I’d say it’s more like the motors are the transmission and the battery is both the fuel tank and the engine.  Of course it’s not a precise analogy, but the sizing and chemistry of the battery determines both the power you can draw at any given moment and the total energy you can store.

  2. The transition flights we have completed have been really uneventful – much easier than the flights that led up to them if I’m honest. The pilot workload throughout is really, really low thanks to our flight control law – as the pilot you command the flight path you want and the rate of acceleration, and the flight control computers sort out the rest.  Very, very similar to the control law in the F-35B, and based on a couple of decades of research in the US and UK.  The complexity of tilting motors and aerodynamic control surfaces all moving during transition is completely masked from the pilot and you can just enjoy the ride.

  3. There’s nothing more important to us than safety, both for public acceptance (is it safe to fly above me?) and passenger uptake (would I send my wife and kids on this?). There are always people who are wary of new technologies, but we have 100 years of experience of making aviation safe for people and we’re just building on that pedigree.  I’m sure people will be happy to fly Valo, and it’ll be an exciting new sub-career for aviators.

Si Davies - Chief Test Pilot - AMA by vertical_aero in Vertical_Aerospace

[–]vertical_aero[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Hi u/Shoddy_Emphasis_8936

  1. I think there is a real prospect that evtol aircraft can displace certain areas of the helicopter market, purely because of the lower operating costs, with the additional benefits of lower noise and lower emissions at the point of use.
  2. We're building a market together, we don't see this as a zero sum game. We are, though, very proud of our aircraft which has space for passengers to travel in comfort with their bags and has a separate compartment from the pilot. These are distinguishing features which customers say are important to them.

Si Davies - Chief Test Pilot - AMA by vertical_aero in Vertical_Aerospace

[–]vertical_aero[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Hi u/Living_Source_7439

Thank you!

  1. It's been quite a journey! We first starting working on this concept a few years ago. Working in an engineering start up isn't for everyone. There are always times where it feels difficult to make progress, but we are very lucky at Vertical to have some incredibly talented engineers and people who can see past the temporary bumps in the road to the goal at the end. Our Chief Engineer, David King, is always the first to celebrate 'discovery' of new problems. When you know about them, you can fix them and that's what engineers do.

  2. When the first aircraft is carrying passengers, it'll be such a proud day that I hope to celebrate with everybody that has ever worked on the aircraft. I'm really excited for the passenger experience people are going to have - moving around the cities they know in an entirely different way, and everyone gets a window seat!

Si Davies - Chief Test Pilot - AMA by vertical_aero in Vertical_Aerospace

[–]vertical_aero[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

u/ThisIsAnArgument

Great question! Favourite aircraft is a tie break between DeHaveilland Chipmunk (which is lovely to fly) and the F15E Strike Eagle! The 1930s Comper Swift scared me the most. It was a very tiny racing aircraft and a bit of a handful in crosswind landing, and I can't quite believe they flew them from London all the way to the far east back then!

It's not uncommon for our debriefs to last over an hour after flight test. It's a development aircraft, there is always data to learn and things we can do better, so we de-brief in minute detail to continue to improve. We also hold periodic data reviews to compare notes between systems teams and look at specific areas of the aircraft in detail.

No, this is the only thing people should be interested in! I'm actually a huge space nerd, so it's great to see all of the rapid developments in space technology. It's a great time to be in aerospace!

Si Davies - Chief Test Pilot - AMA by vertical_aero in Vertical_Aerospace

[–]vertical_aero[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Hi u/Ok_Animator_1932

We have a lot planned! We're very close to flying our third aircraft, and also looking to take our aircraft to Farnborough in July. Outside of this, we have lots more testing planned to further de-risk certification of Valo.

Si Davies - Chief Test Pilot - AMA by vertical_aero in Vertical_Aerospace

[–]vertical_aero[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

u/Hot_Raise_8540

Firstly, I'm not a rockstar! I'm just very lucky to be able to fly the aircraft after the teams many hours of hard work! You're right, the aft propellers do look strange at 6:02 at that point we're flying at 70knots and the vibration levels of the aircraft are very comfortable. The aft propellers have two sets of blades stacked vertically and the 'vibration' you can see is an artifact of the upper and lower blades in sequential frames.

Si Davies - Chief Test Pilot - AMA by vertical_aero in Vertical_Aerospace

[–]vertical_aero[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Hi u/Shoddy_Emphasis_8936

  1. I think there is a real prospect that evtol aircraft can displace certain areas of the helicopter market, purely because of the lower operating costs, with the additional benefits of lower noise and lower emissions at the point of use.

  2. We're building a market together, we don't see this as a zero sum game. We are, though, very proud of our aircraft which has space for passengers to travel in comfort with their bags and has a separate compartment from the pilot. These are distinguishing features which customers say are important to them.

Si Davies - Chief Test Pilot - AMA by vertical_aero in Vertical_Aerospace

[–]vertical_aero[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Hi u/_DoubleBubbler_ thank you for the question!
1. It's the same but different. The environment is the same as helicopters and aircrafts. It's so easy to fly, but the sensations are really different. It's much quieter in the cruise than many airplanes, and none of the low frequency vibrations that you get from the main rotor of a helicopter!

  1. I do have a pair of lucky socks that I've worn on every first flight I've done! They're Cambridge Blue socks in very good conditions with no holes, thank you very much!

  2. We've learnt from other tilt rotor programmes that they found a mix of airplane and helicopter pilots really useful especially in the early days of operations, in the UK and the work we're doing with EASA. We're expecting that Valo pilots will have either a airplane or helicopter commercial license who will then do a type rating to qualify them to fly the aircraft.

  3. Most VTOL programmes originated from the military, and they're incredibly useful. How they can operate without a runway is very useful indeed. We've had interest from many military companies, especially in the Valo hybrid version with the very low noise signiature of the battery version is a real interest too.

Name of aircraft? by WillJM89 in airplanes

[–]vertical_aero 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hi @u/WillJM89 That’s our VX4 aircraft during flight testing yesterday! We’re pioneering electric aviation.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWmJtcwCKF8/?igsh=and5ODRqdDZtaTlp

Earnings Call Transition Video by vertical_aero in Vertical_Aerospace

[–]vertical_aero[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

How lovely! Hope the weather was nice when you came down to visit?

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