The Elroy Air Chaparral C1, an autonomous hybrid vertical take-off and landing aircraft, on a test flight … [+]
Elroy is growing up. Elroy Air, the nine-year-old autonomous jet company named for his son on the futuristic 1960s TV series “The Jetsons,” hit several milestones, won some new funding and has a new leader, the company announced Tuesday.
Loading cargo below the Elroy Air Chaparral hybrid electric takeoff and landing aircraft
Based in South San Francisco, California, Elroy Air developed the hybrid-electric autonomous vertical takeoff and landing aircraft called the Chaparral C1. Chaparral is designed to meet the so-called medium-mile cargo delivery needs of defense, humanitarian and commercial customers.
It can autonomously pick up a pod loaded with 300-500 pounds of cargo, fly it to a destination up to 300 miles away, then release it, ready to pick up another pre-loaded pod.
After serving as its CEO since Elroy began operations in 2016, co-founder David Merrill is moving to become the company’s executive chairman, succeeding former Tesla and autonomous truck company Nuro executive Andrew Clare.
For Clare, it’s a chance to combine his wealth of experience with technology-rich vehicles, including his leadership in the development of Tesla’s Model X program, the PhD in aeronautics focusing on unmanned aircraft that he earned at MIT and his belief in Elroy’s Chaparral.
Elroy Air CEO Andrew Clare (left) and executive chairman David Merrill.
“I just fundamentally believe in this product so much,” Clare said in an interview. “The second thing is that I really think Elroy Air is in a category of its own. When you think about what Dave and (co-founder) Clint Cope and the team have built over the last eight years, they’re one of the only ones focused on midrange loads.
For Merrill, the time was right for him to take on more of what he called “strategic” assignments.
“While Andrew focuses on overall team leadership and technical leadership, I get to work on business development partnerships, going to Capitol Hill, things that can take me a little more often outside the four walls of the company,” explained Merrill. . in an interview.
Merrill’s need to visit Washington, D.C. is based on Elroy’s extensive relationship with the U.S. Department of Defense, where discussions of possible uses for Chaparral include the movement of goods from several branches, particularly to remote areas of the world where has full tracks, including ship-to-shore deliveries.
Indeed, its relationship with the armed forces gave Elroy the opportunity to achieve a major milestone last summer, organizing five flights of the Chaparral at the US Army’s Yuma Proving Ground as part of the MARV-EL program. Marine Corps.
The flights, along with the completion of a 300-pound cargo lift, were intended to demonstrate the Chaparral’s ability to operate in demanding environmental conditions and serve the U.S. military for contested logistics use cases, according to the company.
“Since then, we’ve flown our large-scale aircraft to grow the software and expand capabilities before deploying the same capabilities to the full-scale system,” Merrill said.
In addition, Elroy conducted autonomous transition flights in and out of cruise flights in December, and just before the end of the year, it was awarded what Merrill called a “phase two supercontract” from the Air Force.
In addition to its growing business with the U.S. Department of Defense, there has been interest from several civilian companies, Merrill said.
To keep Elroy’s finances from losing ground, the company completed a major round of financing last October.
The round was led by Marlinspike Partners, with participation from investors and industry giants including Shield Capital, Snowpoint Ventures, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Milano Investment Partners, DiamondStream Partners and Levitate Capital.
“Marlinspike is excited to lead this round of financing for Elroy Air and we are excited to welcome Andrew to the team,” said Mislav Tolusic, managing partner at Marlinspike, in a statement. “Under Andrew’s leadership, Elroy Air has a tremendous opportunity to deploy the VTOL Chaparral hybrid-electric UAS as the autonomous logistics workhorse for US and allied forces – saving lives, time and money.”
The actual dollar amount of the funding round is not being released, but “we’ve extended our runway by about a year,” Merrill offered.
As Clare settles into his role as CEO at Elroy Air, he has already developed a solid to-do list.
“My big goal on the technical side for the company is to expand the flight envelope as well as expand the autonomous capabilities of our full-scale aircraft,” Clare said. “You will see in the coming months that we will begin to do full mission work with our full-scale aircraft. It will rise vertically. It will go into forward flights, hover around and then land vertically, which we’re very excited to be able to demonstrate that capability. From there, we will do a forward flight operation at high speed.”
It’s all been very satisfying for Merrill, who reflects on how far Elroy Air has come, and why naming it after that fictional Jetsons kid symbolized what now looks like a self-fulfilling future, declaring: “ If you go back and watch the first few episodes, he was imagining this future with automation and robotics and air mobility, and it’s all coming true 70 years later.”
