What an amazing kickoff to 2022!
In January, Elroy Air welcomed new customers and partners to our family, we unveiled our updated Chaparral C1 vehicle, and I gave an invited talk about our company trajectory at the 2022 Transformative Vertical Flight Conference in San Jose.
Then in February, Chaparral was featured as the cover story of Aviation Week. This is like an athlete making the cover of Sports Illustrated — it’s a huge honor! Along with the rest of the team, I felt a combination of child-like excitement and a deep satisfaction for this recognition.
And in March, FedEx announced they are teaming up with us at Elroy Air “to keep the world moving forward” — this is a dream team for changing the game in express logistics.
The press noticed, and we’ve seen Elroy Air appear in Forbes, Bloomberg, and CNET, to name a few.
In what was a full-circle moment for me, we had the opportunity to display our C1 vehicle at the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos, CA. For three days, the Chaparral stood in the company of giants — from a XH-44 Hiller-copter, to a replica Wright Flyer, to a SpaceShipOne. Aside from the trove of aviation history, the Hiller Museum also has a special significance for me personally: Ten years earlier, we threw a surprise birthday party for my in-laws at the museum. My father in-law (who is a longtime private pilot and aviation enthusiast) and mother in-law walked into the building expecting to have lunch with an old friend and found 60 of their closest friends and family ready to celebrate among the airplanes. When they dropped by to check out the Chaparral on display at the Hiller, it made me (and them) so proud at what we’ve accomplished.
Moments of public acclaim can make a company look like an overnight success. But this moment is actually 5 years in the making. Our team has been hard at work — designing, building, innovating, testing and working with world-class partners and customers to get Elroy Air to where we are today.
I have huge gratitude for the Elroy Air team — engineering, design, program, operations, people ops, finance and business development — it truly took every one of you to get here. What we’re doing at Elroy Air is really hard, and you all could have found much easier ways to make a living. But our shared mission sets this work apart, and with everyone working together we’re going to bring Chaparral to the world — I’m so proud to be part of this team with all of you.
To our investors, advisors, customers and friends: Thank you for being part of our journey and believing in a future where every person in the world has access to the goods they need, when they need them. We’re 5 years in, it’s still early innings in our industry, and we’re on a roll. Onward and upward!
