• 28 Apr 2025 02:49 AM
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Horizon Bets on Extended Range with Hybrid Cavorite X7

By Pat Host
Vertiflite, May/June 2025

Horizon Aircraft is betting that its Cavorite X7’s unique design and better range through hybrid propulsion will provide success in the electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) market.

HOVR Wing Technology

The aircraft is designed to combine the utility of vertical lift with the efficiency of fixed-wing flight. The Cavorite X7’s patented “HOVR Wing” technology features wing-embedded fans for vertical lift mode that can be transformed into a clean wing for low-drag enroute flight. When transitioning into forward flight, the Cavorite X7 has sliding panels in its wings to close over the fans, allowing it to fly faster and farther, while carrying more people or cargo, than other vertical flight aircraft with more traditional helicopter designs. The aircraft can also use an airplane runway for a short landing or deploy the wing fans to land vertically on a landing pad.

Brandon Robinson, Horizon cofounder and CEO, told a VFS webinar on Feb. 13 that Horizon’s founders noticed a growing gap in the vertical lift marketplace for a tough and fast aircraft that operated more traditionally with fuel on board. This led to the Cavorite X7, which Robinson said has “just enough” batteries on board to enable distributed electric propulsion.

Robinson believes the Cavorite X7’s ability to perform short takeoff and landing (STOL) operations could be popular with operators. By landing like a normal fixed-wing aircraft at a typical airstrip, operators can reduce the load on the electrical system and take off in hundreds of feet instead of thousands. This — combined with Horizon’s software tool that calculates the distance of flight, amount of reserves required and mission profile to connect regional nodes — could open a lot of opportunities for regional flights.

The hybrid-electric design will provide nearly 500 miles (800 km) of range, with reserves, compared to batteryelectric aircraft. Joby says its S4 air taxi is expected to be deployed on routes of up to 100 miles (160 km), while Archer’s Midnight is targeting routes of 20–50 miles (32–80 km). Horizon says the Cavorite X7 could transition to battery-electric flight as battery technology advances.

Robinson said Horizon founders focused on core attributes for a solid business plan: range, speed and payload. The Cavorite X7 is expected to have a top speed of 280 mph (450 km/h) with a useful load of roughly 1,500 lb (680 kg). The aircraft will carry up to seven people, including the pilot. Horizon is marketing the Cavorite X7 for medical services; disaster response; municipal missions, such as emergency surveillance and traffic observation; and military missions, such as insertion and extraction of troops.

“We wanted to build a machine that was tough [and] that people could operate realistically using current technologies and make money in a very, very safe way,” Robinson told Vertiflite on March 4. “We would only build it if it made sense.”

Robinson said he was inspired for the Cavorite X7 by his experience riding in search and rescue helicopters when he was a Boeing CF-18A Hornet fighter pilot with the Canadian Armed Forces.

“Helicopters are much more inefficient in forward flight compared to a traditional aircraft, and they are rather uncomfortable for passengers,” he said. “Traditional helicopters with controls that are directly linked are also challenging to learn to hover, increasing the associated training bill. Our aircraft will be fly-by-wire, offering significantly increased stability and control in hover, reducing pilot workload and increasing safety.”

Horizon expects the Cavorite X7 to fly 98% of its mission in wing-borne flight. While helicopters have unique utility, Robinson said there’s room in the marketplace for an aircraft that can operate more efficiently.

While Robinson expects the Cavorite X7 to cost slightly more than a fixed-wing aircraft on an hourly basis, he predicts the platform will save 20–30% per hour compared to a traditional helicopter, while flying twice as fast. Cavorite X7 operators, he said, can expect to save 60–70% on a per-mile (or kilometer) basis compared to a helicopter.

Unique Design

The Cavorite X7 has five embedded fans in each wing and two fans in each canard surface. Robinson said each fan unit is electrically, thermally and mechanically isolated, allowing them to be easily replaced if they break. The hybrid propulsion allows the Cavorite X7 to recharge its batteries in flight — within the first 10–15 minutes — providing pilots with nearly full battery power to start the landing phase.

Horizon will utilize a turboprop/turboshaft engine to power the generators for the parallel hybrid propulsion system. The company has been in talks with Pratt & Whitney Canada, Rolls-Royce and other companies and is prioritizing keeping it simple, light and safe.

The forward-swept wing has different advantages and disadvantages. Horizon chose the forward sweep for a number of reasons. First, the slight forward sweep offers improved handling at lower speeds and higher angles of attack. The most difficult phase for any modern vertical flight aircraft is generally the transition to forward flight. As the Cavorite X7 accelerates to transition speed, the HOVR wings will close to enter their low-drag cruise configuration.

During this slow-speed phase, it’s beneficial to have a wing that offers positive handling characteristics over a more traditional zero-sweep or rearsweep wing. Second, the forward sweep allows the main spar to be pushed aft, opening more space in the cabin that passengers, cargo operators and special missions such as emergency medical services (EMS) will appreciate. Finally, the forward sweep offers some unique performance advantages in hover that are not immediately intuitive. These combined advantages outweighed the disadvantages of increased structural complexity and some high-speed handling challenges.

Horizon is testing a half-scale prototype that weighs close to 600 lb (272 kg) with a 22-ft (6.7-m) wingspan (with six fans in each wing) that has flown hundreds of times. Robinson said they have completed a number of transition flight tests so far, “beginning at initial tuning all the way through to flying at transition s p e e d s . We have one or two remaining flights wherein we will fully close the wing covers.” The company is also building full-scale aircraft parts and expects to have a full-scale aircraft demonstrator in the next 24–30 months.

Certification

Horizon expects the Cavorite X7 to be one of the first eVTOL aircraft certified for flight into known icing, up to moderate mixed, with instrument flight rules (IFR) certification. Robinson said that while many helicopters can fly in clouds, only a few are certified for flights into known icing. While the transition to and from vertical flight will be done in visual meteorological conditions (VMC), or under clouds, the Cavorite X7 is being designed to fly into clouds once it is in fixed-wing mode. The Cavorite X7 is capable of flying uncrewed and will initially fly without a pilot onboard for hover testing and some forward flight testing.

“Once you have an aircraft that can fly in bad weather, now you avoid the most tragic helicopter accidents, where they’re trying to scud run underneath the clouds and [can] hit power lines and crash into the ground,” Robinson said. “I think this aircraft could avoid that, which is something that will be much safer and appreciated by operators and passengers alike.”

Horizon, based in Lindsay, Ontario, said there are many advantages to pursuing Cavorite X7 certification in Canada. Not only is Transport Canada very interested in the future of advanced air mobility (AAM), Robinson said Horizon has less competition in Canada among AAM developers seeking certification. Additionally, there are many different ways to test in Canada due to its plentiful unpopulated areas and conducive regulatory environment. Transport Canada also has significant expertise in helicopter certification, with nearly all of Bell’s commercial helicopters certificated in Canada.

Horizon could develop a conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) aircraft first, or in parallel, for certification. Robinson said as long as it is mass balanced and the control systems and outer mold line are similar, Horizon can get a lot of credit data for testing a conventional aircraft early in certification. Robinson said Horizon hasn’t formally decided whether to build a CTOL aircraft for certification.

Horizon has raised C$20–25M, enough for 12–18 months, and expects to raise another few hundred million dollars. Robinson expects Cavorite X7 certification to cost less than similar aircraft because it mostly flies on wingborne flight like a typical fixedwing aircraft. It also lacks complicated mechanisms like tilt-wings and is not exclusively all-electric. This, he said, will allow Horizon to fly for a long time and get a lot of data up front, reducing the cost of certification.

Andrew Mearns, a sales coach and consultant with Multicopter Aerospace Consulting, told Vertiflite that the Cavorite X7’s ability to fly and land both conventionally and vertically provides safety benefits. If a typical fixed-wing aircraft loses an engine, it needs to land quickly and find a suitable location that can accommodate the emergency landing.

Mearns also likes the efficiency of the Cavorite X7’s hybrid-electric system. Some conventional fixed-wing aircraft, he said, require multiple heavy turbine engines that must be sized to accommodate the absolute maximum output required for takeoff, which results in dead weight during cruise. Instead, Mearns said Horizon can size the Cavorite X7’s turbine engine to its output capability combined with the battery output capability, and then size those combined outputs to cover the aircraft’s maximum output required for vertical takeoff and landing.

Jonas Murby, principal at AeroDynamic Advisory, told Vertiflite that the Cavorite X7 has several promising features. The laminar flow over the wing allows it to work as a conventional fixed-wing aircraft in flight. The hybridelectric propulsion system, he said, also expands the aircraft’s mission capabilities. Murby also likes how the aircraft’s hybrid propulsion system could enable it to be certified for flying into known icing. Anti-ice capabilities, he said, are taxing on purely battery-powered aircraft from an energy perspective.

About the Author

Pat Host is an experienced Washington media relations and news professional. He’s previously covered aviation technologies for Janes, Defense Daily, Rotor & Wing and other news sites, and his work has appeared in publications such as FlightGlobal, Vertical, and Aerospace America.