Looks amazing and wow!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkO5e2Isfjc

Well worth the read and adds some interesting possibilities for the Cavorite X7 such as using the highway in the sky realm with the IFR (instrument flight rules) within 5-10k feet in elevation.

Enjoy!

https://aerospaceglobalnews.com/news/horizon-aircraft-cavorite-x7-vtol-icing-evtol-limitations/

Joby Aviation is all over the news for their brief JFK flight to Manhattan in 7 minutes (a 48 minute drive). This is a huge positive for the industry and only furthers more interest in similar aircraft to shorten short hops and save time. NYC is a busy hub of La Guardia, JFK, and Newark airports.

This article jumped out for a mix of reasons:

https://spectrum.ieee.org/evtol-joby-jon-wagner-motors

I'm not going to copy and paste the article here. Jon Wagner is a guy who spent 5 years at Tesla before joining JOBY. The article takes a stab at looking at differences between EV motors (cars) and eVTOL's.

How do eVTOL motors differ from car motors? (more emphasis on redundancy in eVTOL motors)

Is redundancy designed into EV motors? (short answer, no)

Count 'em all -- JOBY has 6 tilting rotary propellers. There's redundancy in quantity of propellers to keep the vehicle in flight. No idea how much redundancy is there to power the tilt rotors.

HOVR's CAV X7 -- 12 fan in wings, each with dual motors (redundancy in fan quantity and motors). Fan blades are protected by a grid of sorts to keep it from stuff from touching the blades). HOVR has the advantage in redundancy here.

How does Joby’s eVTOL manufacturing compare to EV manufacturing? (Auto industry influence here, where you break things up for different highly qualified suppliers to do the job. Wagner circles back to an integrated solution. It's still vague to me what that really means.)

Auto industry approach appears to be taking shape within JOBY. JOBY requires an all electric powertrain. Within HOVR - they're leaning on existing aircraft industry practices and using the familiar powertrain of a Pratt & Whitney PT6A.

Will electric aircraft catch on like ground EVs? (Wagner concludes "power-train development has to come with a very healthy dose of patience. Developing a whole new type of power-train is a big endeavor, but it’s one that I’m very confident the aviation industry will undertake." What was not being mentioned is battery technologies for aviation which is also a big endeavor.

HOVR's X7 has de-risked the questions of powertrain with the PT6A providing forward propulsion. It is separate from vertical propulsion (fan in wings, electric powered). The PT6A is being complemented by tech accessories to enable to re-charge on aircraft batteries (a fraction of the weight needed for a fully electric eVTOL) or an external source (base camp).

98% of HOVR's X7 is a conventional aircraft with key components de-risked, and being built by aerospace experts within an aerospace environment.

For JOBY, every flight demonstration count towards a de-risking moment. Showing that it works and does what it should be every time. Before even seeing a complete CAV X7, you know that on day 1, it will be capable of flying conventionally. It's the HOVR aka hover part to take off and land vertically that is novel and unique. 12 fans, with dual motors -- it's more than redundant enough to hover. As they have carefully done with the 50% prototype, they will get to know the hovering inside and out before attempting the most boring transition ever like they did a year ago in May 2025.

It will fly, and show that it can successfully hover, and finally hover+transition+fly+transition+hover+land. Exciting days are ahead in 2027!

They CAN-do!

This news did not exactly make the front pages but the more I read into what MDS Aero is doing, they are top notch in what they do.

MDS Aero is building the test rigs to evaluate the engines of the Horizon Aircraft X7 aircraft (PT6A most likely, who knows if the within wing fans will also be tested too even though it's not 'gas').

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mds-global_today-we-are-excited-to-welcome-the-team-activity-7452730084412633088-IDwf

The news background (from linkedin)

(April 22) Today we are excited to welcome the team from Horizon Aircraft to our Ottawa office as we begin an exciting new chapter together, helping shape the future of flight through next-generation eVTOL technology.

Our partnership brings together two Ontario-based aerospace innovators, combining Horizon’s forward-thinking aircraft development with MDS’s expertise in high-performance test systems. This collaboration demonstrates the capability of Canadian companies to deliver globally competitive aerospace solutions.

Horizon Aircraft is pushing the boundaries of advanced air mobility with a hybrid-electric eVTOL platform designed for real-world performance. Its innovative fan-in-wing system enables operations from spaces as small as a tennis court, before transitioning to conventional wing-borne flight for superior speed and range.

MDS is excited to support this project with advanced testing solutions and purpose-built test rig infrastructure. We are proud to support fellow Canadian companies and help advance the future of safe, efficient, and sustainable flight.

website: https://mdsaero.com/company/

MDS designs and builds highly complex multi-million-dollar gas turbine engine test facilities all over the world.

Now, what does that really mean?

Whether taking you on vacation, shipping cargo across the ocean, or at the end of a 1,000 km gas pipeline, gas turbine engines must be reliable and safe.

We provide our clients with the capability to HARNESS THE POWER of these engines and test them in an environment that mimics their real-world application.

https://mdsaero.com/test-solutions-2/

The website illustrates some commercial size engines they have worked with. It is massive in scale to what we're doing with a PT6A engine. MDS is more than qualified to check off all the boxes here. Even though the PT6A engine has a well documented history, what Horizon Aircraft is doing with it means they need an ultra VIP treatment to thoroughly check it out for hybrid use cases. This means learning a bit more about the electrical power generation to recharge the batteries in flight, on ground, etc.

I presume they will get to know EVERYTHING about power, thrust, and all that to define operational performance parameters for a reliable, safe, efficient, and optimized flight of the X7. This feedback should be generating the crucial feedback to the flight control system (that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries RJ is assisting with (recent PR: MHIRJ will provide specialist engineering services focused on the design and development of flight test instrumentation for the Cavorite X7. ).

Being a hybrid aircraft on day 1, this aircraft instrumentation is going to be unique to to the Cavorite X7 for conventional take offs, vertical take offs, transition to forward flight and transition to landing. They CAN-do. It is being built!