How a father-son duo is leading Canada's electric aircraft race

Globe and Mail

03-06-2025

In a tiny airport hangar outside Lindsay, Ont., Horizon Aircraft is quietly building one of the world's first hybrid electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.
Designed for search-and-rescue operations, tight landings, small groups and regional flights, Horizon's Cavorite X7 seats seven, including the pilot. It takes off and lands like a helicopter but travels at more than 450 kilometres an hour – more than twice the speed. The aircraft uses a hybrid electric engine, reducing fuel consumption and emissions and is capable of recharging midflight.
In mid-May, the company hit a major milestone for the Cavorite X7 – a half-scale prototype – taking off vertically using its in-wing fans, then transitioning to forward movement.
'There's no other company in Canada that's doing this like we are,' says Brandon Robinson, chief executive officer and co-founder of the aerospace startup. 'In 24 months, we'll have a full-scale prototype ready to begin flight testing.'
Mr. Robinson co-founded the company in 2013 alongside his father, Brian Robinson, Horizon's chief engineer. The Cavorite X7 is the sum of his 20 years of experience as a ​​Royal Canadian Air Force pilot and his father's 50-plus years flying and building aircraft as an engineer.
The father-son team is tapping into a burgeoning market. Canada's aviation sector has set a climate goal to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions to net-zero by 2050. Doing so will require developing and adopting new green aerospace technology, including transitioning to electric, hybrid and hydrogen propulsion.
According to Global Market Insights, the eVTOL market is forecast to grow from US$772-million to US$11.75-billion by 2034. But the eVTOL industry is still in its infancy, says JR Hammond, executive director of the Canadian Advanced Air Mobility, a federal not-for-profit consortium supporting the AAM industry in Canada. Currently, battery-powered electrification is limited to small aircraft and short flights.
'We don't have a lot of entrepreneurial solutions being developed in Canada,' Mr. Hammond says. 'Horizon and one other in Quebec are our leaders right now.'
Given the industry's infancy, investors have been hesitant. In February, Lilium, a German-based eVTOL manufacturer, filed for insolvency after funding fell through. The company was considered a front-runner in the space. Volocopter, another German eVTOL maker, also filed for insolvency and stopped operations earlier this year.
Horizon is taking a more grounded approach.
Mr. Robinson says they've focused on building a hybrid eVTOL to capitalize on that transitional market, moving toward full electrification as the technology evolves.
'There's a big market gap here where [there are] a bunch of concepts that'll fly, 50 to 100 kilometres,' he says. 'Ours will go 500 kilometres.'
The smaller battery size, which only accounts for 40 per cent of the weight, means it can carry more. Mr. Robinson envisions it as a lower-emission solution to a helicopter in some scenarios.
'If you're doing that mission from spot A to spot B and need to get in and out of a tight spot, you would 100 per cent buy our aircraft,' he says.
Mr. Hammond says Horizon has found the right target market in supporting emergency medical and rescue operations.
'Today [these types of operations] are done by very inefficient old aircraft and taxpayer dollars for flying up to the remote North, delivering one passenger, a couple medical materials, groceries, et cetera,' he says. 'Bringing in an electric solution that could operate at one-tenth of the cost can radically change how we move people, goods and services across our country.'
Horizon is manufacturing a full-scale version of its hybrid eVTOL aircraft at its hangar in Lindsay. The company has around 30 employees.
'We're an all-Canadian company,' Mr. Robinson says. 'We're trying to keep our supply chain as Canadian as possible and we would [commercially] manufacture in southern Ontario.'
John Carswell, a former pilot and CEO and chief investment officer at Canso Investment Council, was an early financial backer of Horizon. As of 2023, Canso had invested $6.7-million into the eVTOL maker. Horizon is also listed on the NASDAQ under the ticker 'HOVR.'
Mr. Carswell, an aviation aficionado, says Canada has a deep legacy of building innovative aircraft. It also has a legacy of letting good ideas fail.
'Their big challenge will be getting into commercial production. … It's not an easy thing to do, and it's a new category – aircraft are very sophisticated, hard to produce and hard to get licensed,' Mr. Carswell says. '[But] I think they've got a good shot at it.'
For Horizon, the emphasis is on recruiting top talent. In February, the company hired John Wyzykowski, former head of propulsion at Lilium, as a technical expert. Its chief technical officer, Tom Brassington, also comes from Lilium.
'These are legitimately top-10-in-the-world folks that are coming to do some work, not to mention some epic Canadians that we've picked up,' Mr. Robinson says. '[They've] been in electrification right from the beginning and have world-class skills.'
Horizon is currently in talks with partners, including defence contractors, a major helicopter manufacturer and the U.S. Department of Defense.
Mr. Robinson says the company has enough funding for the next 12 to 18 months. 'But these are capital-intensive projects,' he says.
There are also the technical hurdles it's still working through.
'There is a lot of patented technology [in the Cavorite X7] but we're proving it out at full scale,' Mr. Robinson says. 'This has never been done before. We're really excited about how it's all come together.'