Midnight Approaches

On 29 November 2022, Archer Aviation, the California-based designer of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, announced that its eVTOL, dubbed Maker, had made its first full-transition to wing-borne flight.

The accomplishment marked a milestone in Maker’s flight-testing program and yielded important data subsequently applied to the development of Archer’s next-generation Midnight eVTOL, a preliminary iteration of which was unveiled at the company’s 16 November 2022 open-house.

More recently, an announcement from Archer heralding the final assembly of the first production Midnight eVTOL. The company reports all major aerostructures, to include the machine’s fuselage, wing, and empennage, have been built and mated into a cohesive aircraft. What’s more, a significant portion of the inaugural Midnight’s wiring, electronics, flight-control-system-actuators, and additional systems have been successfully installed.

Archer’s development schedule calls for flight-testing of the Midnight eVTOL to commence in mid-2023. The aircraft currently nearing completion will be utilized in preliminary intra-company ground and flight-testing in advance of FAA vetting and type-certification.

In addition to the aforementioned specimen, Archer has begun manufacturing components destined for inclusion in a soon-to-be-produced Midnight conforming aircraft, the flight-testing of which will occur in 2023’s fourth-quarter. Archer intends to build at least six conforming Midnight aircraft for use in the company’s "for credit" testing with the FAA in support of Midnight’s eventual Type Certification. Piloted flight-testing of subject conforming aircraft—which are to be constructed at Archer’s San Jose, California manufacturing facility and integrated test lab—is slated to get underway in early 2024.

Aircraft conformity certification and inspections are performed for purpose of verifying a given aircraft conforms to its type design/certification and is configured to approved specifications.

Archer COO Tom Muniz stated: “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.”

FMI: www.archer.com