Archer Completes Midnight’s Transition Flight
Archer Aviation announced that its Midnight eVTOL aircraft successfully completed a transition flight on June 8th, achieving speeds over 100 mph. Weighing around 6,500 lbs, Midnight is one of the largest eVTOL aircraft to accomplish this milestone, essential for carrying commercially viable passenger payloads. This marks Archer's second full-scale eVTOL to achieve transition, a challenging feat in the industry. The transition flight involves vertical takeoff, forward acceleration, transition to wing-borne flight, and vertical landing. Archer is now progressing towards commercial readiness, with plans for piloted flight testing and certification by the FAA.
- Midnight eVTOL aircraft successfully completed transition flight on June 8th.
- Achieved speeds exceeding 100 mph during the flight.
- Midnight weighs approximately 6,500 lbs, making it one of the largest eVTOLs to complete transition.
- Archer has now transitioned two full-scale eVTOL aircraft, showcasing engineering excellence.
- Midnight's transition flight is essential for carrying commercially viable passenger payloads.
- Archer received Part 135 and Part 145 certificates from the FAA.
- One of two companies to have final airworthiness criteria for eVTOL aircraft issued by the FAA.
- Midnight is in the final phase of its Type Certification program, with piloted flight testing scheduled for later this year.
- No specific financial data or revenue projections mentioned in the press release.
- Potential risks associated with the transition to commercial readiness and certification processes.
Insights
The transition flight of Archer’s Midnight eVTOL aircraft marks a significant technical milestone in the realm of urban air mobility. This achievement demonstrates the viability of electric vertical takeoff and landing technology, which aims to revolutionize short-distance urban travel. Transition flights are complex because they involve the aircraft shifting from vertical lift, like a helicopter, to horizontal flight, like an airplane. This requires precise engineering to manage the changes in aerodynamics and propulsion. The fact that Midnight weighs approximately 6,500 lbs and has successfully completed this transition highlights the robustness and scalability of Archer's design. This is important for carrying commercially viable passenger loads, which directly impacts the aircraft's utility in an air taxi service. As Archer continues its rigorous flight tests, it is well-positioned to refine its technology and move closer to FAA certification, which is a important step toward commercialization.
Archer Aviation's successful transition flight for its Midnight eVTOL aircraft is noteworthy from a financial perspective. First, it validates the company’s technological capabilities, which can boost investor confidence and positively impact its stock price. Achieving such milestones often serves as a catalyst for securing additional funding and partnerships. Moreover, Archer has received important certifications from the FAA, including Part 135 and Part 145 certificates, positioning it favorably in the competitive eVTOL market. These certifications are essential for operating and maintaining commercial air taxi services. However, investors should also consider the financial risks associated with the high capital expenditure required for continued development, testing and eventual large-scale production. While the long-term prospects look promising, short-term volatility should be anticipated as the company progresses through the certification and commercialization phases.
Midnight is Archer’s Second Full-Scale eVTOL Aircraft To Achieve This Milestone
- Midnight completed the transition flight on June 8th flying at speeds of 100+ MPH
- At ~6,500 lbs, Midnight is believed to be one of the largest eVTOL aircraft to complete transition, which is critical to being able to carry commercially viable passenger payloads
- Archer has now achieved transition with two different full-scale eVTOL aircraft which is well known in the industry as a very difficult milestone few companies have reached
- A transition flight occurs when the aircraft takes off vertically like a helicopter, accelerates forward, transitions from thrust-borne to wing-borne flight like an airplane with tilt propellers forward before decelerating and landing vertically
- Click here to view a full video of the transition flight
On June 8th its Midnight aircraft successfully completed transition flying at a speed of 100+ mph. Archer has now achieved transition with two different full-scale eVTOL aircraft. Transition is well known in the industry as a very difficult milestone few companies have reached. At ~6,500 lbs, Midnight is believed to be one of the largest eVTOL aircraft to complete transition, which is critical to being able to carry commercially viable passenger payloads. (Photo: Business Wire)
A transition flight occurs when the aircraft takes off vertically like a helicopter, accelerates forward, transitions from thrust-borne to wing-borne flight like an airplane with tilt propellers forward before decelerating and landing vertically.
Click here to view a full video of the transition flight.
“Transitioning two generations of full-scale eVTOL aircraft in less than 2 years is another remarkable achievement for Archer’s team. This shows we continue to successfully execute against our plan to create the most efficient path to market with an aircraft that is designed for certification and to be manufactured efficiently at scale,” said Adam Goldstein, Archer’s Founder and CEO.
Midnight is now the 7th full-scale eVTOL aircraft that Archer’s CTO, Tom Muniz, and Chief Engineer, Dr. Geoff Bower, have successfully built and flown in their respective careers. Archer’s first generation full-scale eVTOL aircraft, Maker, successfully achieved transition in November, 2022, eleven months after its first flight, and still flies regularly in the company’s flight test program. Just seven months after Midnight’s first flight, Archer has now successfully transitioned its production eVTOL aircraft as the company continues to build momentum towards commercialization.
“Successfully completing the transition from hover to wing-borne flight with a full-scale eVTOL aircraft is a tremendous engineering feat that only a handful of companies in the world have achieved,” said Dr. Geoff Bower, Archer’s Chief Engineer. “Over the seven eVTOL aircraft I’ve built and flown in my career, they have gotten progressively larger as we pursued payloads that made the aircraft platform commercially viable. Midnight is believed to be one of the largest eVTOL aircraft ever to achieve transition and one of the first that is purpose built to carry enough passengers to be able to operate a successful air taxi business. I’m extremely proud of Archer’s team as we have now achieved this milestone with two generations of full-scale aircraft.”
Midnight’s flight test program will now continue its progress with plans to fly simulated commercial routes to demonstrate the aircraft’s operational readiness, executing high-rate flight operations, testing additional flight maneuvers that will be used in commercial settings along with continuing to expand its speed and endurance flight envelope.
Archer continues to make certification progress as the company has now received its Part 135 and Part 145 certificates from the FAA. Additionally, Archer is one of two companies in the world to have its final airworthiness criteria for an eVTOL aircraft issued by the FAA. Midnight is now in the final “implementation” phase of its Type Certification program with piloted flight testing on track to begin later this year.
Archer’s goal is to transform urban travel, replacing 60–90-minute commutes by car with estimated 10–20-minute electric air taxi flights that are safe, sustainable, low noise, and cost-competitive with ground transportation. Archer’s Midnight is a piloted, four-passenger aircraft designed to perform rapid back-to-back flights with minimal charge time between flights.
About Archer
Archer is designing and developing electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft for use in urban air mobility networks. Archer’s mission is to unlock the skies, freeing everyone to reimagine how they move and spend time. Archer's team is based in
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward looking statements regarding Archer’s business plans and expectations, including statements regarding its aircraft performance and the timing of Archer’s development, certification and commercialization of its eVTOL aircraft. These forward-looking statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual results due to a variety of factors. The risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from the results predicted are more fully detailed in Archer’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, available at www.sec.gov. In addition, please note that any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on assumptions that Archer believes to be reasonable as of the date of this press release. Archer undertakes no obligation to update these statements as a result of new information or future events.
Source: Archer
Text: ArcherIR
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240612784892/en/
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Source: Archer Aviation
FAQ
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