Vertical Aerospace has opened a dedicated Aircraft Assembly Centre at its Flight Test Centre at Cotswold Airport in Gloucestershire, giving the British eVTOL developer new capacity to build certification-conforming Valo aircraft and a hybrid-electric demonstrator ahead of initial customer deliveries. The 60,000-square-foot addition lifts the company’s airport footprint to about 130,000 square feet and forms the first stage of its manufacturing scale-up.
The £1.5 million facility is positioned as the next step in Vertical’s move from prototype development and flight testing towards certification and commercial production. It will support compliance and verification testing with the UK Civil Aviation Authority as the company works towards Type Certification targeted for 2029.
Assembly of the first certification-conforming aircraft is due to start in the fourth quarter of 2027, while one prototype is scheduled to be retrofitted for hybrid-electric flight testing in the first half of 2027. After certification, the centre is expected to handle initial customer deliveries and assemble more than 25 Valo aircraft a year during early production. The site will integrate components from Sonaca, Evolito, Vertical’s battery systems and Honeywell Aerospace into flight-ready aircraft.