A Bristol start-up has successfully built and flown the UK’s first electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, a significant milestone for the transport industry’s flying taxi ambitions.

Vertical Aerospace, a technology start-up founded in 2016, built the aircraft to make personal air travel that is on-demand and carbon-free a possibility.

Equipped with four propellers at the front and back of a helicopter-shaped body, the vehicle’s vertical take-off and landing technology would allow it to travel between exact locations, without a pilot having to make diversions to an airport.

The company obtained permission from the Civil Aviation Authority to operate the aircraft and in June flew a test flight in Kemble, Gloucestershire. It is currently capable of a five minute flight time at a top speed of 80kmph. The company has since flown a dozen test flights.

The start-up said it one day plans to add autonomous flights and an on-demand service, meaning users could call a flying taxi to their location. The start-up said it plans to launch an intercity air taxi service by 2022.