The Vertical Space
The Vertical Space
Jim Barry, Peter Shannon & Luka Tomljenovic
#113 Andrew Clare, Elroy Air: Scaling Autonomous Cargo
1 hour 10 minutes Posted Jun 30, 2026 at 10:00 pm.
 Investor questions scaling
 Autonomy: Comparing Ground and Air
 Pods and network disruption
 Simulation - the Core Carryover from Automative to Aviation
 Partnerships and business model
 The Backbone of Every Military Operation is Logistics
 Contested ops and core IP
 Build or Buy - RF Denied Environment
 AI Red Teaming
 Cybersecurity Threats
 Adversarial Spoofing Risks
 Next Whiteboard Priorities
 CEO Skillset Rationale
 Production Ramp Playbook
 Certification Pathways
 Elroy's Durable Moat
 Closing Contrarian Bets
0:00
1:10:24
Download MP3
Show notes
In this episode we speak with Andrew Clare, CEO of Elroy Air, which builds the Chaparral, an autonomous hybrid-electric VTOL that hauls cargo in detachable pods for middle-mile commercial and defense logistics. Elroy is a 10-year-old company built on three then-unpopular bets: cargo over passengers, hybrid-electric over pure battery, and autonomous over piloted. Andrew, formerly CTO of Nuro, joined to turn that foundation into a scaled business, and the company has since demonstrated its tran...