The Elroy Air Cargo is an unmanned
cargo aircraft
A cargo aircraft (also known as freight aircraft, freighter, airlifter or cargo jet) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is designed or converted for the carriage of cargo rather than passengers. Such aircraft usually do not incorporate passenger ...
developed by American startup company Elroy Air, intended to replace land
delivery truck
Delivery is the process of transporting goods from a source location to a predefined destination. Cargo (physical goods) is primarily delivered via roads and railroads on land, shipping lanes on the sea, and airline networks in the air. Ce ...
s on inefficient routes with
unmanned aircraft
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller ...
.
History
The San Francisco-based company was founded in November 2016 by David Merrill, CEO and Clint Cope, VP engineering. Elroy Air initially pursued the
electric aircraft VTOL
air taxi
An air taxi is a small commercial aircraft that makes short flights on demand.
In 2001 air taxi operations were promoted in the United States by a NASA and aerospace industry study on the potential Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) ...
market, but turned to autonomous cargo aircraft to avoid the complications of passenger-carrying certification. In December 2017, the company secured
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
4.6 million of
seed funding
Seed money, sometimes known as seed funding or seed capital, is a form of securities offering in which an investor invests capital in a startup company in exchange for an equity stake or convertible note stake in the company. The term ''seed'' su ...
, led by aerial mobility investor Levitate Capital.
[
By early 2018, a full-scale prototype had been tested at ]Half Moon Bay Airport
Eddie Andreini Sr. Airfield, officially Half Moon Bay Airport is a public airport in San Mateo County, northwest of Half Moon Bay, California, United States. The airport is on the Pacific Coast, south of San Francisco.
History
The Half Moon ...
, south of San Francisco. Its lift system—rotors, motors and controllers—was rigged on a truck-based testbed to verify the aerodynamic lift
A fluid flowing around an object exerts a force on it. Lift is the component of this force that is perpendicular to the oncoming flow direction. It contrasts with the drag force, which is the component of the force parallel to the flow direc ...
produced and the aircraft noise levels for urban operations. In early 2018 a subscale prototype was under construction to validate the aerodynamics and controls, with ground testing planned in early March 2018 and first flight by late March. The full-scale aircraft was forecast to be flown by late summer 2018.Camp Roberts, California
Camp Roberts is a California National Guard post in central California, located on both sides of the Salinas River in Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties, now run by the California Army National Guard. It was opened in 1941 and is named af ...
, completing a 64 second hover.The hybrid-electric propulsion system for beyond-line-of-sight testing should fly in the second half of 2020 on a second prototype. A further Series A funding
A series A round (also known as series A financing or series A investment) is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in exchan ...
round was required for serial production.
Design
The tandem-wing design employed in the air cargo role has a pusher propeller
In an aircraft with a pusher configuration (as opposed to a tractor configuration), the propeller(s) are mounted behind their respective engine(s). Since a pusher propeller is mounted behind the engine, the drive shaft is in compression in nor ...
for forward flight, six propellers under twin booms for vertical lift and a pod to carry 150 lb (68 kg) of cargo under the central fuselage. The hybrid electric
A hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) is a type of hybrid vehicle that combines a conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) system with an electric propulsion system (hybrid vehicle drivetrain). The presence of the electric powertrain is intended ...
powertrain has variable-pitch
In marine propulsion, a variable-pitch propeller is a type of propeller with blades that can be rotated around their long axis to change the blade pitch. Reversible propellers—those where the pitch can be set to negative values—can also ...
rotors with a large diameter to turn more slowly, for redundancy and to reduce noise. Its 150 mile (240 km) operational radius is optimized for express delivery
Express mail is an expedited mail delivery service for which the customer pays a premium for faster delivery. Express mail is a service for domestic and international mail, and is in most nations governed by the country's own postal administration ...
. Ground robots are planned to be employed for ground handling
In aviation, aircraft ground handling defines the servicing of an aircraft while it is on the ground and (usually) parked at a Gate (airport), terminal gate of an airport.
Overview
Many airlines subcontract ground handling to airports, han ...
and one pilot would be responsible for an entire aircraft fleet.[
]
Specifications
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
* {{official website, http://www.elroyair.com/
United States cargo aircraft
Proposed aircraft of the United States