Watch Video: China’s Vertaxi eVTOL on Display at Shanghai’s 6th China International Import Expo
Another Chinese International Event, another new Chinese eVTOL on display, this time the Vertaxi Matrix 1.
Founded in 2021, Vertaxi is based in Zhuhai, Guangdong and develops both manned and unmanned eVTOL Aircraft for passengers and air cargo. By February of this year, the company had raised USD22 million and a few months later, unveiled its first full-scale prototype of the Matrix 1 (M1), alongside detailed plans to enter the market first with an uncrewed cargo version. The M1 recently carried out its first successful trial flight (see video). It is this aircraft on display at the Expo.
Assembled at the company’s Jinshan unmanned aircraft test site on the outskirts of Shanghai, the M1 is a 4,400-lb gross-weight lift-plus-cruise eVTOL aircraft with a wingspan of 49 ft. The craft has four wing booms carrying 16 lift rotors for vertical flight and four propellers for wing-borne cruise flight. There are 20 electric motors. The tail connects the booms to the rear fuselage. The aircraft has a flat-floor cabin that can accommodate up to 32 standard postal boxes.
The aircraft’s estimated cruise speed is 123 mph with a range of 155 miles. It has a maximum payload weight of 1,102 lb. The craft has sixteen VTOL propellers and four forward flight ones with all propellers located on two booms.

Vertaxi M1 in Flight (graphic image)
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In recent months, the prototype has been ground testing at Jinshan. After certifying the M1 for the cargo market, the company’s aim is to select suitable rural and remote locations such as islands and mountainous regions to begin trial operations and start accumulating operational experience and data.
The startup emphasises it is pursuing a development path of “suburbs before cities, objects before people, isolation before integration.” This begins with the uncrewed cargo configuration, gradually transitioning to crewed operation, before finally applying the aircraft to passenger-carrying UAM services.
After EHang gained Type Certification in October and is close to beginning commercial operations, all eyes are on China with a number of other eVTOLs, apart from Vertaxi, emerging. These include AutoFlight, AeroFugia, TCab, Xpeng AeroHT, Volant AeroTech and Volkswagen Group China V.MO Flying Tiger.
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(Images: Vertaxi)