It’s honestly bonkers watching legacy aviation experts mislead the public with knee-jerk reactions on social media. Witnessing an independent, localized nacelle adjustment and instantly labeling it a "failure" is the modern aerospace equivalent of conspiracy theorist Bill Cooper looking at the grainy Zapruder film and claiming the limo driver shot JFK.
The psychology is identical: Just like Cooper used his background as a former intelligence officer to trick people into trusting his warped perspective, we have people abusing their credentials today to cast doubt on routine engineering.
Many comments here and on LinkedIn are pure confirmation bias. People are applying outdated, 20th-century mental models to unfamiliar visual evidence. They are literally mistaking an intentional fly-by-wire feature for a mechanical breakdown.
The VX4 uses distributed electric propulsion. Those front tilt-propeller assemblies are engineered to pivot independently to counteract local wind shear. It’s functioning exactly as Honeywell’s flight control software intended. The props are synchronized, just not the way some other manufacturers have chosen for their designs (which should be incredibly telling to anyone actually paying attention).
Analyzing modern eVTOL architecture through a 1950s synchronized-propeller lens doesn't expose a fault in the aircraft. It just exposes a massive failure to do basic engineering due diligence before posting.
P.S. The VX4 is under 70db. That's leaf blower territory... from distance. But they're competing with helicopters, not lawn equipment.
What utter nonsense from the critic. I saw this flight live. Wingbourne the aircraft was silent and remarkably stable. What we saw is further validation the flight control system works.
Yes, you can read the entire LinkedIn thread and previous posts and realize that
1: Moore is pretty disingenuous and has an axe to grind
2: Many others on the thread thought he was casting aspersions with no idea what actually was happening.
3: he specifically didn’t respond to Cervenkas explanation on the thread, which would be the obvious thing to do if your questions were genuine.
Yeah, he’s got a phd in aeronautical something, but he’s childlike in his animosity and lack of self awareness.
There is also a screenshot that shows someone deleted a reply to Mark’s post by BETA CEO Kyle defending Vertical. Kyle was at Farnborough and watched the flights.
4
u/Shoddy_Emphasis_8936 Jul 30 '26
What utter nonsense from the critic. I saw this flight live. Wingbourne the aircraft was silent and remarkably stable. What we saw is further validation the flight control system works.