Archer Aviation has announced that the first build of its production electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, Midnight is nearing completion.
All major aerostructures such as the wing, tail and fuselage have now been built and mated together and a significant portion of the wiring, electronics, actuators and other systems have been installed.
This puts the company on track to begin flight testing of the aircraft in mid-2023 to prepare for piloted certification tests in early 2024.
Archer says it has also begun component manufacturing for six conforming Midnight aircraft that will be used as part of its “for credit” testing with the FAA.
These conforming aircraft will be built at Archer’s San Jose manufacturing facility in California.
Tom Muniz, Archer’s COO, said:A lot goes on behind the scenes to advance the development of our aircraft as efficiently as we have. 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.
