VIDEO: Horizon Aircraft achieves full-wing transition of its Cavorite X7 prototype, using novel fan-in-wing design 

New Hori­zon Air­craft, doing busi­ness as Hori­zon Air­craft, has achieved full wing tran­si­tion of its large-scale pro­to­type Cavorite X7 air­craft.

Hori­zon says the Cavorite X7’s unique fan-in-wing design com­bines the agili­ty and ver­sa­til­i­ty of a heli­copter with the speed and strength of a con­ven­tion­al air­craft.

With­in the trans­form­ing wings are 14 pow­er­ful lift fansthat pro­vide the required thrust for ver­ti­cal take­off.

Hori­zon intends to suc­cess­ful­ly com­plete test­ing and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of its Cavorite X7 eVTOL and then scale unit pro­duc­tion to meet expect­ed demand from region­al oper­a­tors, emer­gency ser­vice providers, and mil­i­tary cus­tomers.

Bran­don Robin­son, CEO and co-founder of Hori­zon Air­craft, said: “Today we join a very small group of com­pa­nies world­wide that have achieved this crit­i­cal tech­ni­cal mile­stone.

“From the begin­ning, we have focused on inno­va­tions that make the most oper­a­tional sense with the best avail­able tech­nol­o­gy. We are look­ing for­ward to prov­ing this next on our full-scale, pilot­ed tech­ni­cal demon­stra­tor that is cur­rent­ly under con­struc­tion.”

Using cur­rent tech­nol­o­gy, the Cavorite X7 can oper­ate with up to 30 per cent less hydro­car­bon emis­sions than con­ven­tion­al air­craft con­duct­ing sim­i­lar oper­a­tions. As bat­tery tech­nolo­gies evolve, the air­craft can become ful­ly elec­tric.

Bri­an Robin­son, Chief Engi­neer and co-founder at Hori­zon Air­craft, added:“This incred­i­ble achieve­ment val­i­dates our unique and robust approach to the tran­si­tion phase of flight.

“In our air­craft, the tran­si­tion phase was designed from the begin­ning to be a non-event, as there are no com­pli­cat­ed mul­ti-copter rotat­ing nacelles or heavy tilt-wing mech­a­nisms, and we have mul­ti­ple lay­ers of redun­dan­cy.

“The result is an extreme­ly safe and sta­ble tran­si­tion, a vital part of eVTOL oper­a­tions, and an area in which many of our com­peti­tors have faced seri­ous chal­lenges.”

With pro­ject­ed enroute speeds up to 250 mph and oper­a­tional ranges of more than 500 miles with fuel reserves, Hori­zon says the hybrid-elec­tric Cavorite X7 aims to be a dis­rup­tive force in the emerg­ing Region­al Air Mobil­i­ty (RAM) mar­ket.

Click on the link below to watch the tran­si­tion flight.

Simon Cor­bett

Simon Cor­bett is the Founder of eVTOL Insights. He has a love of media and com­mu­ni­ca­tions, and has worked in the inter­na­tion­al Pub­lic Rela­tions indus­try since 1999. Today Simon runs the Pub­lic Rela­tions agency Jar­gon PR and, in his spare time, enjoys sport and trav­el.

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