Archer nearing completion of its first eVTOL aircraft

Archer Aviation Inc. has announced that it is nearing the completion of the final assembly of its first Midnight, the production aircraft it unveiled last November.

All the major aerostructures – wing, tail and fuselage – have been built and mated together. The company has also installed a significant portion of the wiring, electronics, actuators and other systems.

Archer is aiming to start flight testing in mid-2023. This aircraft will be used to enable company testing in advance of ‘for credit’ certification testing.

The company has also now begun component manufacturing for its conforming Midnight aircraft, which will be flown with a pilot.

Archer intends to build at least six of these conforming Midnight aircraft to be used as part of its ‘for credit’ testing with the FAA in support of Type Certification. It is targeting completion of its initial conforming Midnight aircraft in the final quarter (Q4) of 2023. The conforming aircraft would then begin piloted flight test operations in early 2024. These conforming aircraft are set to be built at Archer’s San Jose, California manufacturing facility and integrated test laboratory.

Tom Muniz, Archer’s COO, said: “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.”

Stellantis will work with Archer to support the manufacturing of Midnight.