2020 Galleries

The Spark Gallery pages are one of our most popular design destinations, with thousands of visitors each year. Check out some of the latest Spark entries, in the galleries below.

Galleries // 2020 Spark:Transport // Elroy Air Chaparral

Elroy Air Chaparral

Winner - Platinum

Competition: Spark:Transport
Designer: Colin Owen - Design Director
Design Type: Aviation, Heavy Equipment, Vehicles
Company / Organization / School: Elroy Air
Website: elroyair.com
Team Members: Colin Owen, Isaiah Jones, Clint Cope, Sean Belardo & Terik Weekes

The air vehicle is an autonomous vertical take off and landing aircraft that can deliver 300 lbs of cargo over a 300 mile range. Our mission is to improve the quality of life around the world by democratizing access to rapid logistics. Urgent need for logistics demands a new transport solution that leapfrogs traditional infrastructure. The Chaparral is able to autonomously deposit and retrieve cargo without human contact or the need of road or airport infrastructure. This air vehicle represents the adaptation and maturation of powertrain from hybrid automobiles, sensing from self-driving vehicles, autopilots from consumer multi-rotor control systems, and manufacturing techniques adapted from rapid prototyping and aerospace. Our end users are hospitals, clinics, businesses, stores, warehouses and communities that are not able to receive critical supplies as frequently as they need. Annually, over 600 million people are negatively impacted by natural disaster. This year, the impact hits all of us. We have the ability to decrease the number of lives lost by providing access to urgent supplies at a moment’s notice to any flat patch of land on the globe.

JUDGES COMMENTS:

Elroy Air Chaparral, Transport Design

"The design is strong, but the "purpose" and the need it fulfills is what makes this stand out for me."

"Great concept. Payload modules become a shared resource."

"Hybrid electro: some intent to sustainability -

"Can see an incredible application for this. Functionally it seems to work and meet its design brief. You should be able to commercialize this. The need is there"