Extra Cash Will Flow Straight Back Into Aircraft R&D

After launching its IPO in April, Aerospace technologies developer AIRO Group is attending its first EAA Oshkosh AirVenture as a publicly traded company…and it wasn’t going to let the extra attention go to waste. The company has unveiled a new, mid-mile cargo drone expected to hit the market in coming years.

The new drone is intended for mid-mile logistics, with the ability to haul between 250 and 500 pounds of cargo over 200 miles. It uses Jaunt Air Mobility’s patented Slowed-Rotor Compound (SRC) technology, which is essentially a hybrid rotor-wing setup designed to provide the vertical takeoff of a helicopter with the cruise efficiency of a fixed-wing aircraft. In theory, this offers better safety and performance, though we’ll have to wait until its projected 2027 release to find out just how well it performs.

This isn't AIRO’s first dip into advanced air mobility. Its electric air taxi, the Jaunt Journey, is also under development. The eVTOL uses the same SRC tech to carry four passengers and a pilot at speeds up to 175 mph, with a range of 80–120 miles. This project, however, will likely come far after the new drone’s market debut.

“Bringing our cargo drone to market is more than a technological milestone—it’s a convergence of AIRO’s deep expertise across unmanned systems and electric air mobility,” expressed Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria, Executive Chairman of AIRO. “By leveraging the synergies between our drone and eVTOL platforms, we’re creating a scalable, interoperable ecosystem that addresses both cargo and passenger needs.”

With fresh IPO funding in hand, AIRO says it’s funneling new resources directly into R&D. That includes further engineering work on Journey, the drone, and expanding industry partnerships.

“Because of the combination of different companies and the synergies between them, not only will [going public] create innovation capabilities for us economically and access to resources, but the synergies that the different divisions bring together to provide electronics and different types of technologies across the market are going to accelerate our ability to innovate,” stated John Uczekaj, President and CEO of AIRO member Aspen Avionics. “So we’re going to be very active as we go forward.”

FMI: https://theairogroup.com