AMSL Aero’s Vertiia stages first Oz-produced eVTOL test flight

Score one for Oz. Sydney-based developer of the Vertiia electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, AMSL Aero, says it has become the first Australian company to test-fly a next-generation plane entirely designed and produced in the country.

Perhaps even more remarkable than AMSL Aero’s national eVTOL precedent, however, are the impressive capabilities it says the Vertiia craft possesses. Many similar craft can match its four-passengers-plus-pilot capacities, cruising speeds of 300 km/h, and 250 km flight range when Vertiia operates exclusively on batteries. But when fitted as planned with hydrogen cells, it can fly up to 1,000 km ­– three times the distance of other planes in its category.

AMSL Aero revealed this week that it had successfully completed the maiden hover flight of its Vertiia eVTOL in a tethered operation in the central-west region of its New South Wales home state. It said the trial was carried out according to rules…