Commuters and travelers in the Los Angeles area could be zipping to their destinations in minutes by 2026 in electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft instead of spending hours crawling in traffic on perpetually jammed southern California freeways and roads.
That’s the enticing prospect offered by Archer Aviation Inc. as it plans to launch what it calls an air mobility network in L.A. within the next two years, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company announced Thursday in conjunction with release of its second quarter financial results.
Passengers will fly in Archer’s Midnight eVTOL, which carries a pilot and four passengers, along with carry-on luggage, traveling at 150 miles per hour. It takes off and lands vertically, but flies horizontally like a fixed-wing airplane.
The idea is to reduce travel time for trips that may not be geographically far apart but where road traffic turns what should be short drives into lengthy slogs.
“This is kind of showing the world, at least the L.A. community, how this technology has been worked on for 15 -plus years is actually going to come to life and it’s pretty exciting,” said Archer Aviation CEO Adam Goldstein, in an interview.
Passengers will board and deplane from what Archer terms “vertiports” in key locations such as Los Angeles International Airport, Orange County, Santa Monica, Hollywood Burbank, Long Beach, Van Nuys and the University of California.
The University of Southern California is also working with Archer to use the school’s existing heliports to provide visitors with quick trips to and from its campus, sports venues and hospitals.
“The goal from the very beginning is to leverage a lot of existing infrastructure so we can use any existing helipad or airport that exists,” explained Goldstein.
Indeed, if all goes well, some of the expected millions of visitors and participants at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles might hop, in minutes, between venues in an Archer electric air taxi, or similar aircraft from other companies.
Providing impetus for Archer to be able to provide that service is former Federal Aviation Administration Billy Nolan. During his time at the FAA he set a goal for the use of eVTOLs at the 2028 Olympics. Now he is Archer’s chief regulatory affairs officer playing a key role in bringing that goal to a reality.
“I do think it is a great opportunity for Archer but also for just the U.S. to show that we still are a leader in aviation and that we still can have a big, big impact in the world,” said Goldstein.
Ahead of the southern California air transport network and the 2028 Olympics, Archer is looking to begin commercial operations as soon as next year in the New York City market, with trips between the three area airports and Manhattan, according to Nikhil Goel, the company’s chief commercial officer.
A major partner in that project is United Airlines which has bought over $1 billion worth of Archer aircraft. One of United’s major hubs is Newark International Airport just across the Hudson River from Manhattan.
Hopping a ride in an Archer air taxi could shrink what would normally be a 90-minute drive in the worst traffic to a seven-minute flight, Goel said, in an interview.
The company reported a second quarter loss of $106.9 million, but coupled that with announcements pointing to perhaps a smoother path into the black.
- $230 million in additional capital since the end of Q2. This new capital comes from strategic and institutional investors, including Stellantis and United Airlines.
- Delivered first Midnight aircraft to the U.S. Air Forceas part of Archer’s AFWERX Agility Prime contract valued at up to $142 million.
- Announced plans for Future Flight Global to purchase up to 116 Archer Midnight aircraft worth up to $580 million, bringing Archer’s indicative order book to nearly $6 billion. That purchase will support the companies’ joint goal of launching electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft operations in key global markets in Europe and Asia
Meanwhile, through additional previously announced partnerships Archer is working on a number of other projects that include:
· Memorandum of understanding with Signature Aviation to launch air taxi services at Newark International Airport and Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport by 2025.
· Memorandum of understanding with developer Kilroy Realty Corp. to create an air transport network in the San Francisco Bay Area.
· Memorandum of understanding with Southwest Airlines to develop operational plans for air taxi service at the 14 California airports Southwest serves
On the financial side, Archer received a big boost from the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority which approved a sales and use tax exclusion that’s expected to result in about a $10 million benefit to Archer over the next few years.
In May, the company announced the completion of the build-out of its high-volume battery pack manufacturing line housed at Archer’s integrated test lab and manufacturing facilities in San Jose, Calif.
The facility will support the planned aircraft production at Archer’s manufacturing facility in Covington, Georgia expected to be completed later this year.
In July, Archer received an additional $55 million investment from automaker Stellantis under the companies’ strategic funding agreement following the achievement of its transition flight test in June.
Stellantis is also a key partner and investor in the Georgia plant, providing its manufacturing and automation expertise that Goel says will give Archer the ability to “ultimately” produce as many as 2,000 aircraft annually.
On Thursday the companies revealed Stellantis will contribute up to $400 million to help scale Archer’s Midnight manufacturing to 650 aircraft annually through an obligation to cover manufacturing labor costs as well as certain capital expenditures
The company has been supported by investors who, Goel says, appreciate the company’s strategy of working with known partners rather than attempt to develop and build components themselves.
“It’s easy to say, well, maybe we could do this ourselves and get 3% better performance out of it, but we had the discipline to do that knowing that it would pay off when it came time to go work with the FAA,” explained Goel. “I think that investors have really appreciated our pragmatic approach here and one that’s focused on getting to market quickly with minimal risk.”
For Goldstein, the combination of the L.A. transport launch along with the other projects in the mix marks a new high water mark for Archer’s high-flying aspirations, declaring, “in the end it’s been a long journey for the industry. It’s been, almost 15 years at this point for the industry, and we’re just hopeful to be a big contributor to the space.”
