Vertical Aerospace Ltd. ($EVTL)

Good morning. My name is Warren, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Vertical Aerospace's Q1 2026 Business and Strategy Update Call. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand the conference over to Gillian Levine, IR Lead at Vertical Aerospace. You may begin your conference.

Good morning. I am delighted to welcome you to Vertical Aerospace's first quarter 2026 business and strategy update call. Before we get started, I would like to remind you that during today's call, we'll be making forward-looking statements. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. Any forward-looking statements we make are based on assumptions as of today. We undertake no obligation to update these statements as a result of new information or future events. We've posted an accompanying slide deck to our Investor Relations website at investors.verticalaerospace.com, which contains detailed information on forward-looking statements. For a more complete discussion about these risks and uncertainties, we have filed our financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2026, with the SEC earlier today. Please now let me hand over to our Chairman, Domhnal Slattery.

Good morning, and thank you all for joining us. Since you last heard from us in March, Vertical Aerospace has achieved the most significant milestone in our history, the successful 2-way piloted transition of our prototype aircraft, placing us in a very limited group globally to demonstrate this capability. Transition flight from vertical lift to wingborne flight and back is the fundamental technical barrier in eVTOLs. Successfully completing it validates our design, materially derisks the certification pathway and marks the shift from development to real-world execution. Moments like this are rare. They are the inflection points where ambition becomes reality. This achievement is a direct result of outstanding execution across our engineering, flight test and operations teams. Their precision and discipline made this possible. Today, we'll cover the transition flight, our next major milestone Critical Design Review and finally conclude with our outlook and financing update. Before handing over to our Chief Test Pilot, Si Davies, who was at the controls for this flight, I'd like to briefly frame for you what transition actually means in practice. [Presentation]

Thanks, Domhnal. It's a privilege to speak about what was for all of us a really landmark flight. From the cockpit, this flight was exactly what you hope for as a test pilot. It was predictable, stable and consistent with all our simulations. The aircraft lifted vertically with really strong control authority. And as we initiated forward acceleration, the transition to wingborne lift was smooth and controlled. What stood out most was how closely the real-world performance maps our modeling and simulator work. That alignment is critical. It validates not just the aircraft design, but the integrity of the development framework behind it. Handling qualities remain really solid through the transition envelope. Control inputs were responsive, stability margins were robust and the aircraft behaves like a mature platform, consistent, repeatable rather than exploratory. We have now completed full-scale piloted transition and expanded the flight envelope accordingly, one of the most important technical hurdles in eVTOL. Our final prototype Aircraft 3 is preparing for flight and our focus is firmly towards certification of Valo. Alongside continued flight testing, we have a number of demonstration flights planned, including at Skyports' Bicester Vertiport. Now last year, at the Royal International Air Tattoo, the world's largest military air show, the response we had exceeded all expectations from industry stakeholders to first-time observers, we had tens of thousands of people excited by electric aviation. We expect an even greater showing at the Farnborough International Airshow later this year and look forward to seeing many of you there. I'll now hand over to David King, our Chief Engineer, to talk through the progress on the Critical Design Review for Valo.

Thank you, Si. Completion of full transition was the end of the beginning, marking the completion of our technology development and demonstration phase and importantly, the final validation of the core technical elements underpinning the Valo design. As we've said before, demonstrating eVTOL flight is not the challenge, demonstrating it to airliner safety standards is. Through our prototype aircraft, we have now completed that harder step. Our prototype was designed from the outset to replicate the key features of the certification aircraft, and now we have exercised it across its full flight envelope under a broad set of certification relevant conditions. This milestone unlocks the final phase of Valo design, building on substantial progress across all major systems and propelling Valo design toward a Critical Design Review or CDR, which we are targeting in the middle of this year. CDR establishes the certifiable design baseline and initiates the build and test of certification conforming aircraft. It represents the point at which the aircraft's design is considered sufficiently mature, validated to progress into building aircraft to be used for certification testing. It is one of the most rigorous phases in aerospace development and is underpinned by the analytical methods and validation data generated through the prototype program. Our certification program is not just a technical hurdle. It is a process that requires consistency, transparency and rigor throughout. Another key focus of CDR is alignment across the full certification ecosystem, suppliers, customers and certification authorities. We have worked closely with all stakeholders to ensure the Valo design incorporates learnings from the prototype technology demonstration program, aligns with market requirements and meets commercial aviation standards. CDR is, therefore, not just a technical milestone, it is where the aircraft design is fully optimized across customer needs, safety requirements and supply chain readiness. As we've highlighted previously, we benefit from working with the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority, providing clarity on the certification framework and enabling early engagement with certification processes. Through our prototype program, we've effectively dry run key certification activities, embedding them into our development approach from an early stage, which then directly feeds into our certification design. This results in a well-defined and derisked path to certification, reducing the risk of timing or cost surprises as we progress toward production. The transition flight Si described was a world first for an electric tiltrotor within a design organization approval framework, validating not just the aircraft, but the certification process itself. With that, I'll pass it over to Stuart.

Thank you, David. This quarter has been transformative, not only from an engineering standpoint, but also as it relates to capital raising. We recently secured a comprehensive financing package of up to $850 million, significantly strengthening our balance sheet and providing access to a flexible suite of capital. This positions us to deliver on our technical and operational milestones, progress towards certification and scale our manufacturing facilities. Importantly, it reflects strong investor confidence in both our technology and our long-term strategy. As you may recall, in March, we raised $50 million of new equity. We have subsequently drawn down $30 million from the new facility. Our financial strategy remains disciplined and focused on investments that directly support certification, production readiness and scalability. As you can see on screen, Q1 net cash used in operating activities was $47 million. Cash and cash equivalents at quarter end were $96 million. Our short-term liquidity includes cash on hand and approximately $30 million of anticipated near-term receipts from tax reliefs and grants.

The Board and management are actively reviewing options to maximize the runway from our available capital and carefully managing overall program spend. As you know, we have a world-class team who are already managing and executing the program rigorously at a much lower cost than our peer group. Our near-term liquidity, together with anticipated draws under the facilities forms the basis of a spending plan that provides at least 12 months runway. This prudent approach, coupled with transition taking a few months longer than planned, mean that certification by the end of 2028 is under additional risk. However, as the company's capital position improves, we will reevaluate and seek opportunities to accelerate the time line.

Looking ahead, our near-term priorities remain clear: complete CDR, deliver a strong presence at Farnborough International Airshow and expand our manufacturing footprint. All remain on track. We are now in a phase where execution is paramount. Milestones ahead are challenging but clearly defined. And we now have both the technical validation and financial resources to deliver against them. To close, this marks a turning point for Vertical Aerospace. We are no longer proving that the technology can work. We are demonstrating that it does and that we can bring it to market. Thank you for your continued support. I'll now hand back to Domhnal.

In recent weeks, we have delivered significant progress. I am immensely proud of this team and what we are building. We are now moving from prototype to production with the same execution discipline that has brought us to this point. We look forward to seeing many of you at the Farnborough Airshow, and thank you for joining the call today.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Austin Moeller with Canaccord Genuity.

Have you had any new conversations with [ strategics ] since completing full transition? And have strategics indicated that they would like to see Critical Design Review on Valo as a decision point?

Thanks, Austin. It's Domhnal. I'll take that. So we have continuous conversations with strategics, and I touched on this over the course of our last earnings call and the one prior. They continue engaged, fully engaged. And obviously, the derisk component of the transition has deepened those conversations, and they continue. And obviously, the milestone of CDR is the next focus point because as David alluded to in his comments, it is the pivot point when we lock down the aircraft. So those conversations continue, and we'll continue to develop them over the course of the year.

Okay. And do you have any updates on hybrid powertrain selection with an engine OEM or any updates on that?

Austin, thanks for the question. No updates on that. We'll make an announcement when we've made that. But the hybrid remains on track. We'll be flying Aircraft 3 as a full electric imminently. We'll then install the hybrid later this year and be flying it then. And when we make a production decision on the supplier, we'll make sure we announce it. Thanks, Austin.

Your next question comes from the line of Chris Pierce with Needham.

I guess I'd love to hear -- one just quick housekeeping question. You mentioned in the call, I think you guys have talked about late 2028 certification. Should we think about slippage there as matching the slippage in terms of just a matter of months because if that was a slippage in terms of getting the transition? Or is it something a little more than that we should think about? Or -- I just want to just kind of make sure I fully understand that.

Chris, thanks for the question. Look, we've built a reputation for a couple of things. I think one being transparency and honesty and the other being delivery and hitting all our milestones. From when we launched Flightpath 2030 at the end of '24, we've now hit every single thing we said we would do. We're the only company in this sector that is doing what we say we will do. Now transition was slightly late. In the context of the overall program, it's a very small delay, kind of 3 months. But there's no question, it kind of nudges up the risk a little bit on certification in 2028. However, '28 remains the target. It's absolutely doable. We are striving to do that, but we also have a reputation for full transparency and honesty. And we are a tiny business relative to our peers. We've delivered more than anyone else spending between 25% and 30% of what they do. We are incredibly efficient. So there's no question when you have a little bit of a delay on a transition, you can't -- we don't have a double team that we're working on the Valo. So it just nudges the risk up a little bit. So we just wanted to signal that to the market because it builds on those 2 things we've got a strong reputation for. So hopefully, Chris, that gives you a bit of color commentary around it.

Perfect. And then going back to Austin's question on the strategic partner. I know that hindsight is always [ 2020 ], but I think that you guys would agree that you had wished you sort of did something in the capital markets late last year when you had the original sort of announcement that transition was imminent. Is it a situation where, again, would you be welcoming a strategic partner at these prices? Or you sort of would prefer -- I mean, obviously, you prefer lower dilution. But I guess, should we think of the current share price as something that would be a hindrance to you guys taking on a strategic partner or that's not in the conversation at all and we could see something imminent even at these prices?

Chris, it's Domhnal. So we look at everything through the prism of what is the right and best answer for our shareholders, what creates stability and what will create the most value for the business. Obviously, we would prefer if our share price is higher. We think it's untethered from the past. We've said that repeatedly. We'll continue to review it month by month as to when it is the right moment to pull the trigger on a financing. As Stuart touched on, we have the backstop of the various facilities now in place, but that does not limit our options. In fact, it just provides a baseline. So we're very aligned to dilution risk, and we want to minimize that, and we'll do it at the right time. We think the stock is very significant upside from where it is today. It's trading at levels that are not supported by, in our view, the reality of the situation. On the strategics, it's also important, Chris, to do a step back. We have a portfolio of strategic relationships. And top of that list actually is one of the largest aerospace players in the global market in Honeywell. And I do want to call out Honeywell here specifically because without their support, contribution and a team embedded with our team here in the U.K., we would not have completed a transition. Their expertise, their decades of experience, frankly, is far more strategic than some of our competitors' automotive strategic players. So it's not an excuse in any way, but we've got some deep strategic connected tissue already at Vertical that's paying real dividends.

Your next question comes from the line of Andres Sheppard with Cantor Fitzgerald.

This is Ananda on for Andres. Congrats on the quarter. Congrats on the transition flight. I guess maybe to start on the financing package, on the $850 million and given the expected net cash outflows of $180 million to $200 million over the next 12 months, I was wondering if you could break down how much of the remaining capacity is committed versus still expected? And what levers do you anticipate to pull to finance within the next 12 months?

Sure. Where we sit here today, as you said, we're going to spend around $180 million to $200 million over the next 12 months. We sat on just under $100 million. We've got about $30 million coming in. So that gives you about $120 million. So from that, you can kind of work back into the facilities that we'll draw down over the next 12 months, well, well within the capacity of those facilities. So we're in great shape. We're in great shape. And I think very importantly, as Domhnal said, the financing package that we put in place doesn't preclude us doing anything else at all. So as we continue discussions with strategic partners, that is all on the table for us. There is nothing to preclude us taking financing from any other source that we choose to. But the important point I'd emphasize on this is we've got over 12 months runway as we sit here today. And I think that's extremely important for the market to understand. The way I look at it is there is an absolutely unwarranted bear case against us that is just no longer valid. This is why we put the financing package in place. We have absolutely got access -- guaranteed access to funding to take us through certification. We have the clearest route certification with the best product in the market with a staggering opportunity, as Domhnal said, for upside potential. So we are in a great place as we sit here today. We just need the market to really latch on to that and see that, that bear case has been killed.

Got you. And maybe as a quick follow-up, I was wondering if you could talk us through what the specific flight road map is for Valo? When do you expect to ramp up flights? And when are you targeting piloted transition flight for the Valo after you've transitioned your prototype recently?

Yes, sure. The Valo, we've always said that at the end of this year, we'll be really ramping up into the production of it. The first aircraft will be built in Q1 next year, and it will be flying immediately after that. We then build out a series of these and drive it through to certification in 2028. Nothing has changed on any of that. And the great thing there is once we built the first Valo, because we've done all of this work, as David said, on our prototype aircraft, we can effectively immediately go to transition and just flying and proving this aircraft is ready for certification. So it's a very quick acceleration through the build of the first aircraft through certification. So again, I hope that kind of brings it to life for you.

Your next question comes from the line of Edison Yu with Deutsche Bank.

This is Laura on for Edison. Congrats on all the progress. So could you give more color on how like representative is this prototype test campaign of the full-scale certification testing after you get the CDR? Because like where should we expect the certification testing to be more rigorous or like meaningfully different?

Yes. That's a super question. And I would like to bring David to talk to specifics and Si subsequent to that to talk about from the pilots perspective. So David, over to you.

Thank you, Domhnal, and good morning, everybody. That is a great question. As we stated that this is the -- this milestone of the full transition is the end of the beginning. It's the final box to check to validate the technologies. And so when we say technologies and the validation, what we mean are the key technical elements. So the Aircraft 2, the full-scale piloted prototype was designed from the outset to incorporate the same key technical elements that are incorporated into Valo. And that allows us to validate not just the aircraft itself, but the models that are used to design the aircraft. So as an example. So Aircraft 2 is designed and operated at basically the same power specs and the same flight envelope specs. It has the same 8 propellers with the same disk areas, same mounting configuration with 4 in the forward, 4 in the aft, all mounted to pylons, which are hung underneath the wings. We have the same Honeywell flight control system, the same Honeywell avionics system. We have the same battery system architecture with 8 batteries and 8 independent high-voltage systems. So all of that technology is validated. So Valo is essentially what we call the shrink wrapping of the design. We take these learnings from the prototype and we do another round of optimization. And that optimization is done cross-functionally. And that's why this CDR milestone is so important because it's the opportunity for us to take a step back and say, okay, have we done the full optimization? We look at it from different perspectives. And then we slap the table and turn loose to production. So as Stuart said and as Domhnal said, this is the end of the beginning, but also the beginning of the end because it starts the production. It releases the engineering to build the certification aircraft, which then certifies the type design that is production.

Maybe Si, you might want to add some color on that, please?

Yes, certainly, that's a great answer from David. From my perspective, I think we're focusing on really 3 keys. The first and most important is carrying forward all the things we've learned from the prototype, all the expansion of flight test campaign into the Valo product and making sure we capture all the learning to improve Valo and building on David -- as David said, the architectural similarities. The second important thing is making sure we've got an aircraft that is great to operate that our operators are going to love, that our pilots going to find easy to use, it's going to be safe in operation. And then the third thing is to focus again on the customer experience, the experience that our customers' passengers are going to have, passengers in the Valo, making sure it's a nice, seamless experience that everybody is going to enjoy and that we have the products of choice in the market. And we're in a really good place to do all 3 of those things in a really informed way now.

Thank you, Si.

Great. I appreciate the color. Also wanted to follow up on the supplier side because as you move towards like the aircraft building, like how are the conversations with the suppliers? Are you securing more components and materials? Or like are you seeing any potential like bottlenecks on that side?

Laura, yes, thanks for the question. The relationships with the supplier are fantastic. And as Domhnal said, we don't get credit. Our Tier 1 suppliers are long-term, deeply embedded strategic partners with us. As Domhnal mentioned, Honeywell. Honeywell, we've got a $1 billion contract with them to supply key critical bits of the aircraft, avionics, flight controls, in sectors. And they work hand in glove. In fact, they were co-located over here in Bristol with us as we went through the transition flying. So those conversations are going extremely, extremely well. And that goes down through other key suppliers such as Aciturri, building our airframe, pylons our wings et cetera. So what we're seeing actually having shown the Valo and shown it is the aircraft that redefines the sector from a customer and a user experience, people are really, really keen to work with us to bring this product to life.

Your next question comes from the line of Bryce Sandberg with William Blair.

Congrats on achieving the full piloted transition flight test. Can you talk about any recent customer engagement and feedback following both the completion of the transition test as well as the showcase of the Valo design earlier this year?

Sure, Bryce. Happy to do it. So we believe that our order book is of the highest quality globally by operator with some of the major airlines of the world on the program, including American Airlines. I'm delighted to say that the feedback from American specifically has been very strong. Steve Johnson, who's the Vice Chairman and Head of Strategy for American, attended our event in Miami, spent a couple of hours with us in the aircraft sitting in the cockpit, and was genuinely blown away, if you like, with the size, shape and scale of the aircraft. He's seen the rendering, but when he physically saw the aircraft, he could see it in operation with American Livery. Michael Cervenka, our Chief Commercial Officer, is actually in Brazil today visiting with GOL, who is going to be our largest operator in South America. And Sao Paulo is one of the largest cities in the world and has more helipads per capita than any city. Their reaction has been extremely powerful. I was in Japan 3 weeks ago. Our 2 customers there, JAL and Marubeni are very excited and cannot wait to have the aircraft in flight in Japan. So I think given the reality of this aircraft, what it's capable of doing, its comfort level, the baggage, the segregation and safety of the pilot, this aircraft is definitively the best eVTOL in the global market.

Great. And then just one on the hybrid side, similarly, are you hearing anything from potential defense customers just in terms of the fit of the aircraft for potential defense applications?

Thanks, Bryce. The hybrid remains at the forefront of our development for this year. As I said earlier, we'll be retrofitting it to Aircraft 3 and flying it towards the end of the year. That is a huge, huge opportunity in defense. We have a lot of things coming. We had a U.K. 3-star general with us for a repeat visit. We know the military love this platform. It is something new, unique, and they really want to work with us on it. And we're also working with a number of potential defense primes to make sure we can bring this to market as fast as possible. And as soon as we've got some news on that, we'll make sure we announce that.

Your next question comes from the line of Savi Syth with Raymond James.

I was wondering just you know that after CDR, you're building the first kind of preproduction aircraft. I wasn't sure kind of the -- is that the aircraft that you're going to use for certification flying? Or is there kind of an intermediate step before that? And just curious on how many aircraft you kind of plan on building in 2027?

Yes. Sure, Savi. So let's bring David in to bring that to life, the numbers of aircraft we're going to build when and the certification program journey. Dave?

Yes. Thank you for the question, Savi. That's a great question. Our plan is to build 7, what we call PP aircraft, preproduction aircraft. So they are going to be built to the type design that we're releasing now. And what we expect is during this test program, and out of these 7 aircraft, 2 of them are going to be used primarily as structural test articles, where we do ground static load testing and ground fatigue testing. The other 5 is flight articles. We expect to have, as we talked about early, a fast and efficient envelope expansion test program because the technology has been extensively validated on the prototype. And now we have high fidelity models that gives us the confidence that we can progress through the full envelope expansion in a month instead of over a year. And then we will move into certification type testing. And in the certification program, we do the test first as the applicant and then we bring in the authority. And then we will have a little of delegation we expect, too, through the privileges that we're earning by working with the CAA. What's expected, which is normal in a certification program is that each of the 7 aircraft will evolve to a certain extent. For example, there will be subsequent software builds that will get loaded. So there will be an evolution of certification tests that are done on some prototypes. The function and reliability test, which is done right at the end, is typically done on the last flying aircraft, our PP6. But we will be doing certification testing all the way throughout the test program of the 7 aircraft.

Thanks, David.

That's very helpful color. If I might, just a follow-up on the net cash outflow forecast. It's roughly down about kind of $5 million or GBP 5 million from the March outlook and which is already down from maybe like $40 million to GBP 30 million from your November outlook. I know one of your peers have gone through kind of a similar exercise. And just curious where you're finding opportunities to kind of improve the spend outlook, especially as your kind of pace towards certification and hybrid vehicle testing kind of picks up here.

Savi, thanks for the question. As you know, we're already doing this development program for about 25% of what anyone else in the industry is doing. So extraordinarily efficient. We just review every dollar we spend all the time to make sure we don't waste a single thing. So we continue to do that. And then every quarter, we get a chance to update you the market on whatever we found. So there's no one specific thing. This is just continued very tight cost control management across the board within the operation.

Yes. I mean, Savi, the way to think about it is we spend in a year what one of our U.S. competitors spend in a quarter, and we have achieved full positive transition with an aircraft that's 70% larger under regulatory oversight. They're facts. So we are -- and we've stated this for many quarters, we believe we're the best steward of investor capital. And the reason we're good at it is because we've never had a lot of capital. We've had to exist with a cash base that's just been higher than our peers. But we have inherent advantages being based in the United Kingdom and the nature of our strategic relationships with the likes of Aciturri, Honeywell and so on and so forth. And this model is playing out every quarter. We're just very efficient with cash.

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to the Chair, Domhnal Slattery, for closing remarks.

Thank you very much. Thanks to everybody, as always, for joining. We actually have a record number of people on the call today, so I'm absolutely thrilled. Obviously, a few weeks ago, personally was the highlight of my 36-year career in aerospace. I just couldn't be more proud of the whole team, Stuart, David, Si and the engineering. It's just amazing. We've got a lot to do. We're very ambitious about the future. We want to deliver value for our shareholders, and we are looking at everything through our shareholders' perspective to create value for you. So with that, thank you very much, and we look forward to talking to you in a quarter's time.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.