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Elroy Air sees growing demand for autonomous cargo aircraft
来源：shippingazette 编辑：编辑部 发布：2023/10/11 16:33:17
US-BASED Elroy Air, the company developing an end-to-end autonomous hybrid-electric vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) cargo system, has announced the demand backlog for its Chaparral aircraft now exceeds 1,000 units.
The unmanned cargo aircraft developer has previously secured commitments from partners in the commercial, defence and humanitarian markets including Mesa Airlines, Bristow, FedEx and Libra Group subsidiary LCI.
In September, it announced an agreement with Bristow for five Chaparral VTOL cargo drones, an expansion to Bristow's letter of intent to preorder 100 Chaparral systems in July 2022, reports London's Air Cargo News.
"Over the past several years, we've seen tremendous excitement build about the Chaparral system and its applications. To surpass 1,000 aircraft demand this year is an incredibly exciting milestone," said co-founder and chief executive Dave Merrill.
Elroy Air describes the Chaparral as a "lift plus cruise" hybrid-electric eVTOL cargo aircraft that leverages the benefits of electric propulsion and turbo-generation, for efficient autonomous operations and longer-range missions.
Designed with an advanced carbon composite airframe, Chaparral can be configured to ship inside a standard 40 ft container or cargo aircraft such as a C-130 for rapid global deployment.
Elroy Air has introduced modular cargo pods that complement the Chaparral's capabilities. The pods are pre-loaded by ground personnel and autonomously retrieved by the Chaparral aircraft before take-off.
Upon arrival at the delivery location, the aircraft autonomously lowers the pod to the ground. The Chaparral aircraft then directly retrieves the next pod to maximize efficiency.
The unmanned cargo aircraft developer has previously secured commitments from partners in the commercial, defence and humanitarian markets including Mesa Airlines, Bristow, FedEx and Libra Group subsidiary LCI.
In September, it announced an agreement with Bristow for five Chaparral VTOL cargo drones, an expansion to Bristow's letter of intent to preorder 100 Chaparral systems in July 2022, reports London's Air Cargo News.
"Over the past several years, we've seen tremendous excitement build about the Chaparral system and its applications. To surpass 1,000 aircraft demand this year is an incredibly exciting milestone," said co-founder and chief executive Dave Merrill.
Elroy Air describes the Chaparral as a "lift plus cruise" hybrid-electric eVTOL cargo aircraft that leverages the benefits of electric propulsion and turbo-generation, for efficient autonomous operations and longer-range missions.
Designed with an advanced carbon composite airframe, Chaparral can be configured to ship inside a standard 40 ft container or cargo aircraft such as a C-130 for rapid global deployment.
Elroy Air has introduced modular cargo pods that complement the Chaparral's capabilities. The pods are pre-loaded by ground personnel and autonomously retrieved by the Chaparral aircraft before take-off.
Upon arrival at the delivery location, the aircraft autonomously lowers the pod to the ground. The Chaparral aircraft then directly retrieves the next pod to maximize efficiency.