Autonomous heavy cargo drone manufacturer Elroy Air has introduced the full pre-production version of its Chaparral vertical takeoff and landing craft (VTOL), for which the company says it has already racked up 500 orders.
San Francisco-based Elroy introduced its high-capacity, long-distance Chaparral cargo plane on Thursday, promising the end-to-end autonomous VTOL drone will revolutionize where and how express cargo activities operate around the globe. The craft can carry between 300 and 500 lbs. of payload, and use its hybrid power source to fly up to 300 miles. Elroy says the specially designed onboard handling system permits transported packages to be loaded onto and off of the aircraft automatically, requiring no human intervention at any stage of its operation.
Given that autonomous functioning, heavier capacity, longer flight time than most cargo drones, and VTOL operation, Elroy says the Chaparral will transform how express freight is managed in…
