Archer nearing completion of its first production eVTOL air taxi

Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft developer Archer Aviation has announced it iss moving rapidly toward assembly of its first production air taxi, just four months after unveiling the craft in November.

At the same time the company revealed it had finalized details with local authorities in Georgia on financing agreements for its future air taxi production facility near Atlanta, Archer said it was nearing completion of its first production grade unit of its Midnight eVTOL. The company said the plane’s wing, tail, fuselage, and other main aerostructures have been manufactured and assembled, with much of the wiring, electronics, actuators, and other systems also now in place.

Read: Archer, United announce air taxi service between Manhattan and Newark Airport

The progress made on bringing the air taxi together means Archer should be able to begin testing of its production eVTOL sometime toward the middle of the year. Once that the first model of Midnight conforms entirely to the designs and specifications required for the certification process, all trials of the craft will qualify toward fulfilling conditions to obtain final regulator authorization.

Archer says manufacturing of all components of the piloted, four-passenger Midnight air taxi is already under way, and that it intends to build at least six of the initial production models of the eVTOL as part of its work to obtain Type Certification. 

The company says it’s aiming for the plane now being assembled to attain full conformity to certification specs in the fourth quarter of this year, with piloted testing of that completed craft to begin in early 2024. 

Archer intends to build at least six of the piloted, four-passenger Midnight aircraft to be used as part of its “for credit” testing with the Federal Aviation Administration in support of Type Certification. The company believes trials of the first of those entirely conforming planes will begin in Q4 2024.  

Read: Archer, car giant Stellantis ink major eVTOL air taxi production deal

All six planes to be constructed at Archer’s San Jose, CA developmental manufacturing facility, and then integrated into its test lab located close to Archer headquarters. The company is aiming to obtain certification of its Midnight eVTOL in late 2024 or early the following year, and launch air taxi services in 2025.

“A lot goes on behind the scenes to advance the development of our aircraft as efficiently as we have,” said Tom Muniz, Archer’s chief operating officer. “I couldn’t be more excited to share the news of Archer’s progress on Midnight. This latest milestone is further validation of our strategic approach of using known building blocks to enable realistic innovation significantly de-risking our path to certification and mass manufacturing. The team and I are looking forward to moving this aircraft into flight testing soon and continuing on our path to flying our conforming aircraft in early 2024.”