FT称Vertical Aerospace技术有进展但现金压力仍大

Britain’s electric air taxi contender needs more power
With a gentle buzz, an aircraft flew a long figure-of-eight path above the former Royal Air Force base at Cotswold airport before halting in mid-air and landing gently with its eight electric engines. The manoeuvre has defeated many rivals in an industry that has struggled to take off.
Vertical Aerospace, the UK company that is the main European contender to bring an electric air taxi into commercial service before investors’ money runs out, was having a good day. This was a prototype: the Valo production aircraft that it plans to start building next year will not carry paying passengers until 2029 at best, but the test flight was impressive.
I had just witnessed what is known as full transition: an electric craft flown by a pilot taking off vertically, rotating its propellers forward to cruise like a conventional aircraft, then landing vertically. Vertical claims that only Joby Aviation, the US start-up that is closer to launching services and this week had a market capitalisation of $7.6bn, has pulled off a similar feat.
Vertical is at least in business, an achievement itself in an industry that is bigger on promising than delivering. Start-ups have wooed investors for more than a decade with visions of passengers paying to be transported over cities in a new generation of flying machines. Rivals including Lilium and Volocopter of Germany have instead filed for insolvency.
But Vertical has also had a bumpy ride. Launched in 2016 by Stephen Fitzpatrick, an entrepreneur who founded Ovo Energy, it went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021 at a valuation of $2.2bn but is now worth only about a tenth of that. Fitzpatrick lost control of Vertical in 2024 to US hedge funds led by Jason Mudrick’s Mudrick Capital, a distressed debt specialist.
Vertical’s latest ambition is to be certified by UK and European regulators by the end of 2028 and then sell Valos for more than $5mn each (along with annual battery replacements) to pre-order customers including American Airlines and the helicopter group Bristow. Unlike Joby, it will not run its own services but rely on others to offer a safer, electric alternative to helicopter flight.
Aircraft start-ups are notorious for consuming the money of enthusiasts, but Mudrick insisted when we spoke this was a hard-headed financial bet: “The nature of this industry is that only a handful are likely to survive, and the winners will be very valuable.” He argued that piloted transition proved Vertical’s technical worth and its main challenge was now financial.
Vertical’s balance sheet is stretched. It held $100mn in cash and equivalents in May and is due to burn through this and $100mn of financing it raised in March within a year. It can call on another $750mn of backup financing to carry it through to 2028 with a hedge fund called Yorkville Advisers, but could dilute its existing equity if it was forced to use this.
Vertical really needs a strategic partnership, similar to Joby’s alliance with Toyota and Archer Aviation’s with Stellantis, to convince other investors that it can reach certification in robust condition. If a global auto company or aircraft manufacturer took a stake, the market might start to view it differently. Mudrick has been involved in talks with potential strategic partners.
There are some reasons for hope. Valo is larger than Joby’s aircraft and would be able to carry four to six passengers with luggage (Archer’s Midnight craft is a similar size and it has sued Vertical for patent infringement). The UK and EU have strict regulatory standards and joint certification would allow Valos to carry passengers in 32 countries with a combined population of 530mn.
But Vertical must do a lot financially with relatively little. It estimates that it is spending about a quarter to a third of the sums of US rivals such as Joby and Archer, which inevitably limits progress. “Manufacturers move at the speed of cash in this game,” says Brian Foley, an industry analyst.
Stuart Simpson, chief executive, says Vertical is “thrifty” but wants the UK government to offer it financial incentives to build a battery factory near Bristol, rather than in another country. “This is an opportunity for Britain to secure a global industry . . . We’re valued at a fraction of our competitors and we have a better product.”
That may be, but Vertical still has to prove it and a prototype is not enough. It deserves credit for having come so far while others have crashed. But its destination remains far off.