Ambitious Timetable Aims to Produce 650 Midnight eVTOLs per Year

Archer Aviation's biggest facility yet is just about ready, as the firm announced the completion of a 400,000-square-foot factory by year's end.

The new facility is based in Covington, Georgia, one of those states that seems to be just a cut above the rest when it comes to sweet talking prospective business tenants. The state is pretty friendly with Archer already, as seen from the attendance of government personnel at a recent showcase of the Midnight eVTOL at DeKalb-Peachtree Municipal Airport (KPDK). People from Georgia’s Office of the Governor, Georgia’s Congressional Offices, the City of Atlanta, Georgia’s State Legislature, the FAA, and smaller municipal governments came out to check out the 'future of aviation' in the flesh, an aircraft that should be turned out by the Covington facility to the tune of about 650 units a year. If Archer can hit that target, it would make it one of the largest manufacturing facilities by volume in the entire aviation industry.

But there's still a good deal of work to be done, as evidenced by a deeper look into construction. As the calendar flipped the page into August, Archer was only part way through "Phase 2", which saw the placement of the walls and roof. 

(Phase 1, of course, was the usual foundation and grading work outside.) That's mostly complete, but that leaves Phases 3 and 4 are "on track to be completed in the coming months" - and anyone familiar with building a house, let alone a complex next-generation aviation manufacturing facility knows timelines have a funny way of stretching out when it's time to finish the place. Phase 3 will see Archer fit the interior throughout the facility, while Phase 4 will have them load up all the complex equipment, power supplies, and production systems into place to power it all up for the first time. It's possible, sure, but with fall just around the corner it may be a tall order without a big enough crew. But Archer seems pretty confident about the timeline, so maybe everything will turn out just fine, as they often can with sufficient monetary investment.

“Thanks to the hard work of the Archer and Stellantis teams, we’re tracking towards completing this manufacturing facility by the end of the year," promised Adam Goldstein, Archer CEO. "Once complete, we’ll focus on ramping production up to 650 aircraft a year—our goal is to be the first in the eVTOL industry to achieve scaled manufacturing.”

FMI: www.archer.com