Photo: Archer
I must say, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft don't get my heart pumping all that much. I mean, sure, replacing a time-consuming land commute with a quick flight to the destination sounds enticing and all, but as far as design goes, eVTOLs still have a long way to go.
Except, perhaps, the Archer Midnight. That would be the thing you can admire in the attached gallery, the product of a startup called Archer Aviation. Born in 2018, the company rapidly grew to draw the attention of behemoths from both carmaking and aviation fields, Stellantis and United Airlines.
What Archer is proposing is something we've seen before: an air taxi machine powered by electricity that can be used to handle city and inter-city travel, thus helping ease the pressure on roads and making commutes faster.
Archer's idea is called Midnight, an eVTOL that draws its juice from six independent battery packs. So many were needed because the design calls for each battery to power its own pair of electric motors, of which the Midnight has a total of 12.
I said I liked the design of the Midnight, and it could only take a look at the thing for you to get the same feeling. From the front, the beast looks like a helicopter on steroids, one that would not look at all out of place in sci-fi flicks the likes of Halo or Avatar.
When looked at from above, the eVTOL looks simply and deliciously beastly, with two massive wings dangling above the main fuselage to support the 12 engine-propeller assemblies.
And it's quite capable, too. It can reach a top speed of 150 mph (241 kph) and can travel for as much as 100 miles (160 km). That may not seem all that much for us drivers, but when you measure that in a straight line, through the air…
Since its creation, but mostly over the past two years, Archer has been conducting flight tests with two prototypes called Maker. This week however the company announced it has completed the first Midnight.
The aircraft is scheduled to fly for the first time later this summer, following a series of ground tests that will be conducted in Salinas, California. It will be a test bed for another eVTOL from the same family which will be used for certification with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) sometime next year.
When all the bureaucratic hurdles are cleared, production of the Midnight will begin under the watchful eye of Stellantis at a facility in Covington, Georgia. The target is to have the assembly lines rolling as soon as next year.
It's possible we’ll even see the eVTOL being used for military ops, after the Department of Defense expressed interest in it. The main reason for that is said to be the aircraft's payload capabilities – it can carry over 1,000 pounds (454 kg) of cargo.
The other major Archer partner, United Airlines, announced back in March its first Midnight air taxi route, linking O'Hare International Airport to Vertiport Chicago. The trip between the two points should not take more than ten minutes, a far cry from the more than an hour needed by road. The route should become live in 2025.
What Archer is proposing is something we've seen before: an air taxi machine powered by electricity that can be used to handle city and inter-city travel, thus helping ease the pressure on roads and making commutes faster.
Archer's idea is called Midnight, an eVTOL that draws its juice from six independent battery packs. So many were needed because the design calls for each battery to power its own pair of electric motors, of which the Midnight has a total of 12.
I said I liked the design of the Midnight, and it could only take a look at the thing for you to get the same feeling. From the front, the beast looks like a helicopter on steroids, one that would not look at all out of place in sci-fi flicks the likes of Halo or Avatar.
When looked at from above, the eVTOL looks simply and deliciously beastly, with two massive wings dangling above the main fuselage to support the 12 engine-propeller assemblies.
And it's quite capable, too. It can reach a top speed of 150 mph (241 kph) and can travel for as much as 100 miles (160 km). That may not seem all that much for us drivers, but when you measure that in a straight line, through the air…
Since its creation, but mostly over the past two years, Archer has been conducting flight tests with two prototypes called Maker. This week however the company announced it has completed the first Midnight.
The aircraft is scheduled to fly for the first time later this summer, following a series of ground tests that will be conducted in Salinas, California. It will be a test bed for another eVTOL from the same family which will be used for certification with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) sometime next year.
When all the bureaucratic hurdles are cleared, production of the Midnight will begin under the watchful eye of Stellantis at a facility in Covington, Georgia. The target is to have the assembly lines rolling as soon as next year.
It's possible we’ll even see the eVTOL being used for military ops, after the Department of Defense expressed interest in it. The main reason for that is said to be the aircraft's payload capabilities – it can carry over 1,000 pounds (454 kg) of cargo.
The other major Archer partner, United Airlines, announced back in March its first Midnight air taxi route, linking O'Hare International Airport to Vertiport Chicago. The trip between the two points should not take more than ten minutes, a far cry from the more than an hour needed by road. The route should become live in 2025.
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