Bristow Inks Letter Of Intent With Elroy Air For 100 Chaparral VTOL Aircraft

(RTTNews) - Bristow Group Inc. (VTOL), a provider of flight solutions, said on Wednesday that it has signed a Letter of Intent or LOI with Elroy Air, a logistic firm, to pre-order 100 Chaparral hybrid-electric cargo VTOL aircraft.

The current LOI will replace a separate purchase deal, the company said in a statement.

Bristow Executive Vice President and Chief Transformation Officer Dave Stepanek, said: "Leveraging our expertise as both a helicopter and Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) operator, we plan to use the Elroy Air Chaparral aircraft to fill an increasing demand for the movement of time-sensitive cargo for logistics, health care and energy applications…"

The Chaparral is a vertical take-off and landing aircraft dedicated to cargo movement which is expected to serve logistics, healthcare, and energy applications of Bristow.

The first production version of the Chaparral will carry 136 to 226kgs of cargo over a 482 km range with its hybrid-electric power train.

To date, Elroy Air has secured agreements to supply 900 aircraft to commercial, defense, and humanitarian customers.