Everything Electric Podcast Have batteries made electric flight real? Can UK's Vertical Aerospace conquer the skies?
Jul 13, 2026
David King, Chief Engineer at Vertical Aerospace and veteran rotorcraft designer behind the Velo eVTOL, discusses how batteries and electric propulsion unlocked practical VTOL flight. He covers reduced maintenance, noise and community impact, rapid electric torque for vertical phases, safety and certification ambitions, and urban use-cases like medical evacuation and short city hops.
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Why Batteries Made eVTOLs Practical
- Battery and motor advances in the last decade made fully electric VTOL aircraft plausible.
- Energy density, power density, longevity and compactness now support practical eVTOL performance and economics, David King said.
Multiple Technologies Must Mature Together
- Several technologies had to mature together for urban air mobility to be viable.
- Motors, batteries, distributed propulsion, aircraft config and air traffic management all needed simultaneous progress, David King explained.
Plan For Regular Battery Replacement
- Build battery replacement costs into the eVTOL operating model instead of assuming show‑stopping degradation.
- Even replacing packs annually at high utilization still yields lower per‑seat costs than mechanical helicopters, David King argued.