Hanwha Aerospace(012450) said on the 3rd that it ended early a 454.8 billion won contract with Vertical Aerospace (VA) of the United Kingdom to develop and supply parts for electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOL).
VA, a corporations in urban air mobility (UAM), had earlier decided to develop with Hanwha Aerospace and receive supply of parts to be applied to its four-seat UAM VX4 under development.
The parts are the "electric motorized actuator (EMA) and tilting/blade pitch system for the VX4 airframe," and the two companies agreed to develop and supply the parts from Aug. 23, 2022, to July 31 this year.
However, due to delays in global UAM industry certification timelines and a pullback in investment, the timing for VX4 commercialization was pushed back and the project did not proceed properly, and the two companies signed a termination agreement on the 31st of last month.
Hanwha Aerospace said, "Although both companies faithfully fulfilled their contractual obligations after the contract was signed, we agreed to terminate the contract based on a strategic judgment as market conditions and the direction of business promotion changed compared to the original business purpose."
At the same time as ending the contract, the two companies signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to maintain a future cooperative relationship and plan to continue cooperation in similar development projects and mass-production supply projects.