American Airways is investing in UK-based electrical plane maker Vertical Aerospace and will order as many as 250 of the brand new planes for $1 billion, the airline stated Thursday.

Vertical Aerospace plans to develop a zero-carbon plane that may carry 4 passengers and a pilot and fly at speeds of as much as 200 mph with a spread of 100 miles.

Vertical has additionally garnered funding assist from Microsoft and Virgin Atlantic together with main plane suppliers similar to Honeywell and Rolls-Royce.

It’s the primary main leap by American Airways into the electrical vertical takeoff and touchdown (eVOTL) plane discipline, following the same deal by rival United Airways in February to order as much as $1 billion in electrical plane via an organization referred to as Archer Aviation.

“Rising applied sciences are essential within the race to scale back carbon emissions, and we’re excited to accomplice with Vertical to develop the subsequent technology of electrical plane,” stated a press release from Derek Kerr, chief monetary officer at American. “For years, American has led the business in investing in newer, extra fuel-efficient plane.”

Airline executives have generally dismissed electrical plane due to the restricted vary and the a long time it can doubtless take for them to hold a bigger variety of passengers over important distances like industrial airliners do.

However airline executives have additionally been pushing for methods to scale back the carbon footprint of flying via applied sciences similar to sustainable aviation gasoline and extra fuel-efficient engines.

American stated the Vertical Aerospace plane might carry passengers “rapidly round city metropolis facilities and to airports.” Vertical stated the planes can have the identical requirements as industrial airline jets and will probably be 100 occasions safer than helicopters.

Vertical is planning a take a look at flight of its VA-X4 mannequin for later this yr and hopes to have the plane licensed by 2024.

Vertical says it has pre-orders for as many as 1,000 of the planes at a price of as a lot as $4 billion. American stated it can solely order the planes if the plane can attain a set of milestones and specs that will probably be set later. Plane leasing agency Avolon can be hoping to take orders for as many as 310 of the plane with the choice for 190 extra.

Vertical additionally introduced on Thursday that it was merging with special-purpose acquisition firm Broadstone Acquisition Corp. to type a publicly traded firm value about $2.2 billion. A lot of these special-purpose acquisition firms have grown in recognition over the last two years as traders have seemed to spend money on rising applied sciences and fields.

“That is essentially the most thrilling time in aviation for nearly a century; electrification will remodel flying within the twenty first century in the identical method the jet engine did 70 years in the past,” stated a press release from Vertical CEO Stephen Fitzpatrick.