Vertical takeoff and landing cargo drone company Elroy Air has completed the first autonomous and uncrewed test flights barely five months after being chosen to participate in a federal program to promote development of so-called advanced air mobility aircraft, the company announced Wednesday.

The San Francisco-based company conducted a week-long series of flights from the Houma-Terrabonne Airport in Houma, Louisiana in late August, in cooperation with partners Bristow Group and LIFTOFF Louisiana.

Elroy Air’s Chaparral hybrid-electric autonomous VTOL is designed to carry loads of up to 500 pounds over distances of up to 450 miles.

Payloads during the test flights weighed “at least” 150 pounds and included a variety of materials including packages and parcels, medical supplies, toolboxes with spare parts, food and jerry cans of water, according to the Elroy CEO Andrew Clare.

“We were very very pleased with the aircraft performance that we saw. It met all of our simulation models of the high humidity and the hot weather testing that we have already done before,” said Clare, in an interview. “But until you actually do it and validate your models--it was really great to see the data really correlate there, which was great.”

The federal initiative is called the Advanced Air Mobility and Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing Integration Pilot Program, or eIPP, part of Pres. Donald Trump’s American drone dominance executive order.

Last March, several aviation companies were invited to participate in eight projects across the country designed to both test the technologies and demonstrate their capabilities.

Chosen along with Elroy Air, were Archer Aviation , Joby Aviation, Electra and BETA Technologies.

“You see how quickly we were here, up and running, and operating in a new airspace, fully integrated with air traffic control under FAA approval. So I think that’s the first feature of acceleration of the eIPP,” said Clare.

In addition, Clare credited eIPP with, enabling the Federal Aviation Administration and U.S. Department of Transportation to receive useful data from the test flights, with helping air traffic control develop rules and policies for vertical takeoff and landing aircraft and creating what he termed “pathways towards revenue-generating operations.”

“This demonstration with the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development and Elroy Air provides data to help turn these concepts from trial to deployment.” said FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford, in a statement. “These test flights demonstrate how these new aircraft can expand cargo delivery options to communities nationwide and improve our logistics infrastructure.”

“Our energy and government services customers need low-risk, high-tempo options for moving critical cargo across the Gulf Coast, and that’s exactly what Chaparral delivers,” added Dave Stepanek, Bristow executive vice president and chief transformation officer,” in a statement.

While Elroy has focused primarily on developing Chaparral for commercial deliveries, it was developed as a dual-use aircraft designed to serve the defense industry for transporting cargo for military purposes, as well as delivering humanitarian aid, especially in locations that cannot accommodate typical runways, as Chaparral requires none.

The company says its “commercial demand pipeline” is more than 1,400 aircraft representing more than $5 billion in “potential revenue.”

Its key customers, according to Clare, are Bristow Group, which pre-ordered 100 aircraft, The Barq Group, with which Elroy Air signed a $200 million joint venture to build a manufacturing facility in Abu Dhabi, SLI Aerospace, formerly known as LCI, to purchase up to 40 aircraft with deposits placed on 20, along with the U.S. Defense Department and FedEx.

The Chaparral will be produced in the U.S. by Kratos Defense & Security Solution at its Sacramento, California facility.

The first aircraft should start rolling off the line during the fourth quarter of this year for mainly test purposes, with initial deliveries to customers in 2027, Clare said.

Investors looking to buy shares of Elroy will soon have that opportunity as the company plans to go public on the NASDAQ through a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC led by the management team of Inflection Point Asset Management and Cohen & Company, Inc.”

“We will be ringing the bell in Q4,” said Clare.