Archer Unveils “Midnight” eVTOL
Archer Aviation’s 12-engine (six for forward motion, six for vertical lift) five-person eVTOL called “Midnight” continues its march towards commercial operations in the next three years. Beyond a scheduled unveiling to the public on Nov. 16, 2022 at a company open house in San Jose, California, Midnight is currently in an FAA certification process that Archer hopes to complete in 2024. The aircraft is targeted at the urban air mobility market as an option to overloaded ground transportation systems.
“Midnight is expected to be able to carry over 1,000 pounds of payload, making it
a true pilot-plus-four-passenger aircraft, which is key to enabling our revenue models,” said Samuel Swanson, Archer Aviation spokesperson. “Midnight is expected to be able to fly up to 100 miles, but more importantly, it is expected to be able to complete our target mission of successive 20-mile flights with a charging time in between of approximately 10 minutes.”
Archer’s work on the production version of Midnight is being guided by “Maker,” the company’s demonstration eVTOL. According to Swanson, “Archer’s engineers continue to make huge advancements,
both throughout the design, development, and flight testing of Maker, our full-scale demonstrator aircraft, and during the ongoing design and development of Midnight.”
At press time, the company is in the process of shifting its flight-test focus from Maker to a preproduction prototype of Midnight. “We expect to make significant progress in Midnight’s developmental flight testing program throughout 2023 and anticipate completion in time to achieve FAA certification by late 2024, with commercial business operations scheduled to begin in 2025,” Swanson said.
rotorpro.com
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