MHI RJ Aviation Group to Help Advance Development of Horizon Aircraft’s Cavorite X7 VTOL Hybrid-Electric Aircraft

Hori­zon Air­craft has announced an agree­ment with MHI RJ Avi­a­tion Group (MHIRJ), a sub­sidiary
of Mit­subishi Heavy Indus­tries Ltd, which will sup­port the ongo­ing devel­op­ment of Hori­zon’s hybrid-elec­tric VTOL air­craft, the Cavorite X7.

Through this part­ner­ship, MHIRJ will pro­vide spe­cial­ist engi­neer­ing ser­vices focused on the design and devel­op­ment of flight test instru­men­ta­tion for the Cavorite X7. This effort is essen­tial to enable crit­i­cal data col­lec­tion from the aircraft’s flight test pro­gram expect­ed to begin in ear­ly 2027.

In addi­tion, MHIRJ will offer broad engi­neer­ing sup­port and uti­lize its region­al avi­a­tion exper­tise to help move the Cavorite X7 pro­gram for­ward.

Elio Rug­gi, Senior Vice-Pres­i­dent, Chief Engi­neer- Head of Air­craft Devel­op­ment, Qual­i­ty & Flight Ops, MHIRJ, said: “We’re excit­ed to team up with Hori­zon Air­craft on their inno­v­a­tive Cavorite X7 project. With our
exper­tise in engi­neer­ing and region­al avi­a­tion, we believe we can make a sig­nif­i­cant impact as they lead the way in hybrid-elec­tric VTOL air­craft.”

“This col­lab­o­ra­tion not only opens doors for busi­ness growth, but lets us use our engi­neer­ing strengths to push this cut­ting-edge ini­tia­tive for­ward. We’re com­mit­ted to con­tribut­ing to the val­ue chain and
sup­port­ing sus­tain­able tech­nol­o­gy in region­al avi­a­tion.”

Found­ed in 2020 fol­low­ing Mit­subishi Heavy Indus­tries’ acqui­si­tion of the CRJ Series pro­gram, one of the world’s most suc­cess­ful region­al air­craft fam­i­lies, MHIRJ brings decades of expe­ri­ence design­ing, cer­ti­fy­ing, and pro­duc­ing new air­craft types. The organization’s team of high­ly expe­ri­enced aero­space engi­neers and avi­a­tion spe­cial­ists makes the part­ner­ship a strong strate­gic fit for the rapid­ly grow­ing Hori­zon Air­craft.

The MHI RJ Avi­a­tion Group (MHIRJ) pro­vides com­pre­hen­sive crit­i­cal oper­a­tional, engi­neer­ing and cus­tomer sup­port solu­tions includ­ing main­te­nance, refur­bish­ment, tech­ni­cal pub­li­ca­tions, mar­ket­ing and sales activ­i­ties for the glob­al region­al air­craft indus­try.

Head­quar­tered in the Mon­tréal area, Cana­da, and bol­stered by an Aero­space Engi­neer­ing Cen­tre, MHIRJ’s net­work of ser­vice cen­ters, sup­port offices and parts depots are posi­tioned in impor­tant avi­a­tion hubs in Cana­da, the U.S. and Ger­many.

While Hori­zon Air­craft is devel­op­ing one of the world’s first hybrid-elec­tric VTOL (Ver­ti­cal Take-Off and Land­ing) air­craft designed to fly most of its mis­sion in tra­di­tion­al wing-borne flight, offer­ing indus­try-lead­ing
speed, range, and oper­a­tional util­i­ty.

Hori­zon Air­craft’s unique designs put the mis­sion first and pri­or­i­tize safe­ty and per­for­mance. Upon suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of test­ing and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of its full-scale air­craft, Hori­zon Air­craft intends to scale unit pro­duc­tion to meet expect­ed demand from region­al oper­a­tors, emer­gency ser­vice providers, and mil­i­tary cus­tomers.

Hori­zon Air­craft Co-Founder and CEO, Bran­don Robin­son, added: “MHIRJ rep­re­sents an elite engi­neer­ing group with­in the glob­al aero­space com­mu­ni­ty with a proven track record in region­al air­craft devel­op­ment. This part­ner­ship strength­ens the Cavorite X7 pro­gram and helps sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduce the tech­ni­cal risk asso­ci­at­ed with advanc­ing our air­craft toward flight test­ing and even­tu­al cer­ti­fi­ca­tion.”