Joe Breitfeller
May 12, 20232 min
Archer Aviation has completed the final assembly of their first Midnight eVTOL aircraft. With final assembly and initial testing complete, last week the aircraft was shipped from Archer’s Palo Alto facility to the flight test facility in Salinas, California and reassembled.
On Thursday (May 11, 2023), Archer Aviation Inc. announced the completion of the final assembly of their first Midnight eVTOL aircraft. With final assembly and initial testing complete, last week the aircraft was shipped from Archer’s Palo Alto facility to their flight test facility in Salinas, California, where it was reassembled. Archer will now take Midnight through a series of ground tests leading up to its first planned flight this summer. The aircraft will enable Archer to perform critical ‘company testing’, to accelerate and mitigate risk on the certification program with the FAA in advance of ‘for credit’ certification, which the company plans to begin in early 2024 with a piloted Midnight aircraft.
In Thursday’s announcement, Archer’s Founder and CEO Adam Goldstein, said,
“Today we announced our exciting progress that the final assembly of our first Midnight aircraft is now complete and it is preparing for its flight test program. This aircraft will accelerate and reduce risk on our certification program paving the way for our team to focus on building and conducting piloted operations with conforming aircraft to support the goal of entering into service in 2025.”
With a range of up to 100 miles, Archer’s Midnight is designed to perform rapid back-to-back flights with a minimal charge time in between. The company’s plans on transforming inter-city travel, replacing 60-90 minute automobile commutes with 10-20 minute electric air taxi flights.
Santa Clara, California based Archer Aviation, Inc. (NYSE: ACHR) is designing and developing eVTOL aircraft to be deployed in urban air mobility (UAM) networks. The company’s mission is to unlock the skies, freeing everyone to reimagine how they move and spend time. Archer’s early launch ‘trunk’ routes will connect airports with city centers, and once established, will be branched out to connect surrounding communities. The first phase of their UAM network is targeted to launch in 2025.
Source: Archer Aviation, Inc.