The Future of Advanced Air Mobility

The founders of Astro Aerospace first flew this "passenger drone" eVTOL in mid-2017 before looking to sell it.

Astro Aerospace bought the project in May 2018 and named it AA360, later renaming it Elroy before unveiling a range of improvements including making it foldable so it can fit in the average garage.

With 16 rotors supporting a composite body and two occupants, touchscreen controls are used rather than manual controls, ELROY is designed to be a low-noise/zero emissions, easy-to-operate craft flying 20-25 minutes at around 60mp

On June 3, 2021, Astro Aerospace acquired Horizon Aircraft. The merged operation will develop Horizon’s Cavorite X5 aircraft in addition to Astro Aerospace’s Elroy and Alta models.

Outlook

Our objective assessment of this program’s probable success.

FutureFlight assesses the probability of success for a new aircraft program by considering the following criteria:

  • Total investment funds available in proportion to the anticipated cost of getting an aircraft certified and in service
  • A company’s in-house capability (in terms of numbers of engineers, technical staff, and customer support teams)
  • The past experience of the company and its senior leadership in developing aircraft
  • The caliber and past experience of key program partners
  • Whether key aircraft systems have been selected and are available for use
  • Whether the preliminary design review has been completed
  • Whether the design for the full-scale prototype has been completed
  • Whether the type certification process has been formally initiated with an appropriate regulator
  • Whether the company has achieved a first flight with a full-scale prototype
  • The number of hours logged in a flight test program
  • Whether type certification has been achieved
  • The number of orders and commitment received for the aircraft
  • Whether the company has adequate facilities to begin series production of the aircraft
Our Methodology

Given the announcement of a range of improvements, this program seems to moving towards a point where it can be produced and sold but little is known about the extent of financial backing and requirements for certification at this stage.

Investors

Total Amount Invested: $40m