It has been an eventful week for Canadian eVTOL developer, Horizon Aircraft.
The startup, which has kept a relatively low public profile until now, has begun trading on the Nasdaq (using ticker HOVR) on January 16, 2024, after completing a merger with a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) called Pono Capital Three just three days earlier.
On the same day it made its stock market debut, New Horizon announced it had received a Letter of Intent (LoI) from the Indian private aviation operator JetSetGo for 50 units of its future Cavorite X7 eVTOL aircraft, plus another 50 options. With this aircraft, which is currently still under development, selling for US$5 million apiece, the order, if firmed, will value US$250 million and up to US$500 million if all options are exercised.
The Cavorite X7, which takes its name from a fictional metal that appears in a H.G. Wells book, is a hybrid eVTOL concept designed to carry six passengers and a pilot. Its most outstanding feature is its range, which is expected to reach 800 km and speed of up to 450 km/h, both rather impressive in this category.
To achieve this performance, the Cavorite X7 combines the distributed propulsion of 16 electric motors located along its wings and the frontal canards, as well as a propeller at the rear.
Horizon Aviation is taking part in, and has received funding from, the AFWERX program, an initiative through which the United States military tests several innovative advanced air mobility concepts.