5/15/2023 0 Comments The ventures eight miles high![]() ![]() He stresses that Archer has to-date, stayed on its timeline and delivered on “nearly everything we’ve put out” - from the company’s 2018 founding to its early IPO pitch-deck. “We’re an aspirational company trying to change the world,” Goldstein replied. No one (possibly aside from private/public investors) is pressuring the pair to make such a statement. Given the closeness to 2025, I asked why - on a certification basis, let alone readying things in Chicago - Archer and United would tell the world they’ll be flying air taxi passengers in 2025. Step three is the most challenging, complex and time consuming. He describes Archer as being a “majority of the way through” step two of the three-step FAA type certification process. Ground testing will commence “shortly,” Goldstein says and flight testing will also begin midway through this year. Asked whether Archer has completed its final-phase critical design review of the vehicle, Goldstein says his company has “not publicly talked about that yet.”īut Archer has completed a new low-rate initial production facility near its San Jose, Calif., headquarters and by mid-year will begin building a handful of ground test articles and flight-test prototypes there. As of today, it has not begun ground testing nor has it begun flight testing.Īrcher has completed its preliminary design review, signed up suppliers, and has just finished building its first pre-production Midnight. Goldstein explains Archer’s thinking was akin to, “Let’s not bring the FAA something and say, ‘Here, certify this.”Īnd yet, Midnight has a long way to go before achieving FAA type certification (and FAA Part 135/121 air carrier certification) in time to grace the skies over Chicago by 2025. Archer says it used Maker as testbed for Midnight, in the process proving the tech and familiarizing the FAA with its intended product. It has “the same configuration, similar flight controls and a lot of the same set up,” Goldstein confirms. Midnight builds on Archer’s experience with its Maker prototype eVTOL aircraft. With FAA weight and carry-on baggage allowances of 200 pounds for men and 179 pounds for women, there would be little margin for additional checked-luggage on flights with all four passenger seats filled. This suggests that United air taxi passengers on their way to O’Hare will want to pack for short duration trips. when filled with a pilot and four passengers. Despite its size, Midnight is projected to only have a payload of about 1,000 pounds whereas a 407 can carry 2,300 pounds or more.Īrcher's Midnight eVTOL will take up significant ramp space but offer just 1,000 pounds useful load. Midnight has a wingspan of 47 feet and weighs nearly 5,500 pounds. Typical four to six passenger helicopter air taxis like Bell’s 407 weigh in at about 2,700 pounds, are about 9 feet wide, and have a rotor diameter around 35 feet. That’s very helicopter-like performance, if not size. It’ll cruise at about 2,000 feet and somewhere over 100 mph though Archer says it’s “engineered for speeds up to 150 mph.” Six stationary propellers on the back of the wing provide lift, while the other six rotors on the front of the wing tilt forward and back to transition from hover to cruise flight.Īccording to the company, the name Midnight derives from the “desire to represent the arrival of a new day.” The aircraft is optimized for a pair of 20-mile trips with about 12 minutes necessary for recharging batteries between flights.
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