Vertical Aerospace signed a partnership agreement with the automotive group Hyundai WIA and the UK-based advanced engineering and consulting company, Stirling Dynamics, covering landing gear for the Valo eVTOL aircraft.
New Partnership
Hyundai WIA has officially signed a long-term partnership to develop and manufacture a bespoke lightweight landing gear system for the Valo, an electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft developed by Vertical Aerospace. Under the agreement, the Hyundai Corporation subsidiary holds end-to-end design and production responsibility for the system. UK-based Stirling Dynamics will act as the primary design partner to support Hyundai WIA through its extensive history in certified aircraft programmes.
Notably, this manufacturing contract is separate from Hyundai Motor Group’s own internal Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) ambitions. Hyundai continues to pursue this through its U.S.-based eVTOL subsidiary, Supernal, which recently announced further support from Korean Aerospace Industries.
The landing gear is one of the most critical structural components of an eVTOL, making the partnership between Vertical Aerospace and Hyundai WIA highly significant. To receive clearance from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the landing gear must meet commercial airline-level failure metrics. Hyundai WIA brings heavy industrial system integrity, while design partner Stirling Dynamics injects 30+ years of active, certified aircraft safety expertise.
The Aircraft
The Valo is a next-generation eVTOL commercial air taxi developed by the UK-based Vertical Aerospace. It serves as the production-spec successor to the company’s VX4 technology demonstrator. The aircraft is a piloted, four-passenger, zero-operating-emission eVTOL targeting full type certification by 2028.
Last month, Vertical reported that it had achieved a piloted two-way transition flight with its VX4 prototype and type certification via the UK CAA. The EASA is targeted for 2028. It is also a highly significant aircraft because it marks the transition of the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) industry from experimental technology demonstrators into economically viable, production-ready airliners.
Benefits
The partnership between Hyundai WIA and Vertical Aerospace offers strategic, manufacturing, and technical benefits. It solidifies the industrial foundation required to transition the Valo eVTOL from a prototype into a commercial, mass-produced aircraft.
As landing gear systems are traditionally heavy; Hyundai WIA is engineering a custom, ultra-lightweight architecture vital for protecting the battery range of an all-electric aircraft. By leveraging engineering support from Stirling Dynamics, the system is designed to seamlessly handle the complex loads of both traditional runway rollouts and vertical landings.
While this contract is specifically with Hyundai WIA for the Valo, it builds a strategic bridge as it leaves room for future collaboration on automated production line robotics or advanced light-alloy metallurgy.
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