Elroy Air has announced that Bristow Group Inc. has expanded its early delivery reservations for the Chaparral autonomous cargo aircraft, reserving 10 additional early delivery positions for a total of 15. Bristow previously secured early delivery slots for five Chaparral drones and announced a pre-order agreement for up to 100 Chaparral drones.
This announcement follows the first autonomous, uncrewed flight demonstrations conducted in Houma, Louisiana, as part of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP), in collaboration with government and industry partners.
David Stepanek, Executive Vice President and Chief Transformation Officer at Bristow Group, stated: “Seeing Chaparral in action during the recent demonstration activities in Louisiana gave us an opportunity to explore how it could support a range of transportation and logistics missions. It’s great to work with a partner like Elroy Air. We see potential applications across commercial, government services, and special mission operations and we’re continuing to evaluate where technologies like this could create value for our customers.”
Bristow and Elroy Air have collaborated for several years to explore potential applications for autonomous cargo aircraft. Aircraft such as Chaparral may create new opportunities to support cargo and logistics operations in environments where flexibility, range, and limited infrastructure are important considerations.
Dr. Andrew Clare, CEO of Elroy Air, stated: “We’re proud to have partnered with the Bristow Group over the last few years and it was amazing to be in Louisiana flying alongside Bristow’s helicopter fleet in one of the busiest airports for rotorcraft in the nation. We appreciate Bristow’s continued confidence in the platform and look forward to supporting the evaluation of Chaparral across a variety of cargo and logistics missions.”
Elroy Air’s Chaparral is an uncrewed, autonomous VTOL aircraft that carries 500+ pounds of cargo and requires no runways, airstrips, or other fixed infrastructure to operate. Its hybrid-electric powertrain delivers the reliability of electric propulsion with extended range of up to 450 miles, and requires no charging infrastructure, further reducing the logistics footprint needed to sustain operations. Multi-mission pods allow rapid reconfiguration across payload types for multi-mission capabilities.
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, the exclusive U.S. manufacturer of Chaparral, will produce the aircraft at its expanding Sacramento, California facility, with the first production aircraft planned for late 2026.
