New Horizon Aircraft, doing business as Horizon Aircraft, is a Canadian advanced aerospace engineering company developing the Cavorite X7, one of the world’s first hybrid eVTOLs. The company is progressing its development so that the Cavorite X7 can fly under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR), allowing operations in clouds – a feature no other eVTOL has achieved. The aircraft is also being built to certify for Flight Into Known Icing (FIKI), a certification currently only held by a small number of expensive, heavyweight helicopters.

The Cavorite X7 aims to perform critical missions such as medevac, search and rescue, and urgent goods delivery reliably and year-round, with enhanced safety, speed and lower operating costs.

With their ability to access difficult and inaccessible locations, helicopters serve many crucial functions. However, exposed rotor blades are susceptible to ice formation, which can cause damage, severe instability and loss of lift. These safety risks can lead to flight cancellations, emergency response delays, and, for the Canadian Coast Guard, interruptions or failures in marine aids to navigation.

“As a seasoned commercial helicopter pilot, I have experienced firsthand how known icing conditions can force delays, cancellations and operational setbacks,” says Horizon Aircraft senior technical project manager Vincent Hoog. “I joined Horizon Aircraft because the technology on the Cavorite X7 provides a real solution to these problems, and its enhanced performance will be able to serve more people and communities worldwide when they need it most.”

This month, Horizon Aircraft kicked off its collaborative all-weather vertical propulsion project, supported by a non-dilutive grant from Canada’s INSAT programme (Initiative for Sustainable Aviation Technology). Advanced ice detection and protective technologies, including ice-phobic and electrothermal coating solutions, will be tested on the Cavorite X7 to prepare it for IFR and FIKI certification.

Horizon Aircraft co-founder and CEO Brandon Robinson says: “The Cavorite X7 is one of the only modern VTOL aircraft designed to fly in clouds. This significant differentiator will provide all-weather operations with improved performance for all real-world missions. Horizon is currently building our full-scale aircraft and has secured sufficient capital and scaled our engineering team by 50 per cent this year to be ready for testing.”