New eVTOL leadership group featuring Joby Aviation and Vertical Aerospace created to tackle key safety challenges

The UK Civ­il Avi­a­tion Author­i­ty has estab­lished an inter­na­tion­al con­sor­tium of eVTOL air­craft indus­try lead­ers and avi­a­tion experts, which will con­sid­er the safe­ty chal­lenges need­ed to be solved to allow air taxis and drones to come to mar­ket.

Known as the eVTOL Safe­ty Lead­er­ship Group (eVSLG), the group was announced at Helitech Expo yes­ter­day (Tues­day) and fea­tures eVTOL OEMs such as Ver­ti­cal Aero­space and Joby Avi­a­tion.

Oth­er com­pa­nies which are also part of the group include Bris­tow Heli­copters, Air Acci­dent Inves­ti­ga­tion branch, British Heli­copter Asso­ci­a­tion, Flex­jet, Gen­er­al Avi­a­tion Safe­ty Coun­cil (GAS­Co), NATS and Vir­gin Atlantic.

The group is Co-Chaired by the Head of the UK Civ­il Avi­a­tion Author­i­ty’s Rapid Capa­bil­i­ties Office, Rick New­son, and Matt Rhodes from Bris­tow Heli­copters, who is also co-Chair of the Off­shore Heli­copter Safe­ty Lead­er­ship Group. In a press release announc­ing the news, mem­ber­ships for the group are expect­ed to increase in the com­ing weeks.

New­son, said: “The for­ma­tion of the eVSLG con­sor­tium is a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone toward a future of eVTOL air­craft and drone taxis becom­ing a real­i­ty in UK air­space. With com­mer­cial oper­a­tions poten­tial­ly start­ing in the next five years, it is vital that a strong safe­ty cul­ture is built into the heart of eVTOL oper­a­tions.

“The UK is a glob­al leader for avi­a­tion inno­va­tion, and this group will pro­vide a space for organ­i­sa­tions to col­lab­o­rate and cre­ate of world-first tech­nolo­gies, tried and test­ed in a safe envi­ron­ment.”

While eVTOL air­craft are not yet in oper­a­tion, they have the poten­tial to launch com­mer­cial­ly in the UK with­in the next five years. In order to begin oper­a­tions and receive reg­u­la­to­ry approval, any air­craft needs to stand up to the strictest stan­dards of avi­a­tion safe­ty.

The eVSLG con­sor­tium is an open space for indus­try and is out­side of usu­al Civ­il Avi­a­tion Author­i­ty gov­er­nance and assur­ance process­es. As the UK’s avi­a­tion and aero­space safe­ty reg­u­la­tor, the Civ­il Avi­a­tion Author­i­ty has facil­i­tat­ed the eVSLG to demon­strate its com­mit­ment to con­tin­ue the sec­tor’s high avi­a­tion stan­dards into inno­v­a­tive and future avi­a­tion sec­tor oper­a­tions. It expects the con­sor­tium will empow­er the eVTOL mar­ket to suc­cess­ful­ly take off and retain the UK’s high­est lev­els of avi­a­tion safe­ty.

Rhodes added: “The ver­ti­cal flight indus­try has evolved sig­nif­i­cant­ly over the last half cen­tu­ry. Many of the lessons learned, prac­tices and pro­ce­dures that have been devel­oped over this peri­od, will undoubt­ed­ly read across into this new era of pow­ered ver­ti­cal flight.

“eVTOL air­craft rep­re­sent a sig­nif­i­cant and rev­o­lu­tion­ary step change in this indus­try neces­si­tat­ing that safe­ty process­es con­tin­ue to evolve in line with this fast mov­ing and dynam­ic tech­nol­o­gy. We are com­mit­ted to a col­lab­o­ra­tive approach to the shar­ing of safe­ty crit­i­cal data and best prac­tices to assure our suc­cess.”

Joby Avi­a­tion and Ver­ti­cal Aero­space are two of the main eVTOL OEMs with a clear path to cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, with both com­pa­nies aim­ing to launch com­mer­cial ser­vices as ear­ly as 2024. While Joby is already pub­licly trad­ing on the New York Stock Exchange, fol­low­ing a joint busi­ness merg­er with Rein­vent Tech­nol­o­gy Part­ners, Ver­ti­cal expects to com­plete their busi­ness merg­er with Broad­stone Acqui­si­tion Corp by the end of this year.

Ver­ti­cal announced up to 1,000 pre-orders for its VA-X4 eVTOL air­craft, with Vir­gin Atlantic tak­ing up an option to order between 50 and 150 air­craft. It plans to work with Ver­ti­cal as part of a joint ven­ture to devel­op a Vir­gin Atlantic-brand­ed short haul eVTOL net­work in the UK. This will look con­nect UK air­port hubs, start­ing with Lon­don Heathrow as well as Man­ches­ter and Lon­don Gatwick.