Archer's futuristic Midnight air taxi completes phase 1 flight tests

Three months after its first takeoff, the production-spec Midnight air taxi has finished the first phase of flight testing. With the release of a new video, Archer says it expects to fly this next-gen machine with human pilots on board this year.

Currently sitting in fifth place on the AAM Reality Index – and with a bullet – Archer is making steady progress in its mission to get fully certified electric air taxis into commercial service by 2025. It's signed a couple of notable deals this month – one with Atlantic Aviation, around development of ground-based infrastructure in California, Florida and New York City, and another with NASA to study and validate the safety of high-performance battery systems.

So the pace in the boardroom appears healthy, and things are moving along in the hangar as well. The Midnight prototypes have been flying since late October, albeit only in standard multirotor mode. But the team has now validated the airframe's ability to take off, hover, turn, and maneuver like a multirotor drone, tilting to accelerate. The prototype is running and validating some of Archer's first high-voltage battery packs, which it's manufacturing in San Jose. So far, so good.

Next, the Midnight prototype will need to demonstrate the transition from hover to cruise modes, tilting its front six propellers forward and accelerating into the efficient, wing-borne airplane mode that'll allow it to fly up to ~100 miles (160 km) between battery top-ups, at speeds up to 150 mph (241 km/h). The Joby S4 flies further and faster, but there's room for all in this nascent electric air taxi game, and Archer is very much focused on shorter 20-50-mile (30-80-km) hops across town – which is probably how most of us picture these eVTOLs being most useful as relatively affordable high-speed traffic busters.

Within the year, Archer says it's planning to have human pilots on board, and to begin the rigorous process of "for credit" flight testing with the FAA, moving down the path towards a type certificate that'll allow these next-gen aircraft to start taking paid passengers.

Archer is still targeting 2025 for full certification and entry into service – as are Joby Aviation and Beta Technologies. The AAM Reality Index gives Joby a 75% chance of hitting that date, and Archer closer to 50% – but either way, if it's not next year it won't be long after that. Beta gets a 100% probability – but then, Beta is cheekily certifying a CTOL (conventional takeoff and landing) version of its Alia aircraft, with the intention of upgrading it to VTOL down the line.

It's happening, folks – the quiet, cheap electric air taxis are almost upon us. Clearly, they work – but will they transform urban life the way people expect them to, particularly now that working from home is becoming a well-entrenched option, and plenty of folk don't need to sit in traffic all morning and evening? We look forward to finding out!

Source: Archer Aviation