Archer AviationIn Certification
Archer's production eVTOL aircraft - a piloted, all-electric VTOL with seating for 4 passengers plus 1 pilot. Features 12 electric motors (6 tilt for cruise, 6 lift for VTOL), a V-tail design, and is optimized for back-to-back short trips of ~20 miles with ~10-minute recharge between flights. Designed for high-utilization urban air taxi operations.
Latest update Oct 10, 2026
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Completed UAE in-country full eVTOL flight-envelope testing in 2025, passed 700 total Midnight test flights by May 2026, and had completed 70% of for-credit FAA flight-test points using Midnight aircraft by Q1 2026. By Q2 2026 the FAA had approved Archer's quality management system. Piloted city-to-city flights include Salinas-Monterey (July 30) and the September 4 Salinas-Hollister No Roads first stop; AIN said N703AX cannot transition and both July 30 legs were conventional takeoff and landing. The publicly demonstrated piloted transition flight remains the outstanding gate, slated for H2 2026 and not yet publicly completed as of Oct. 10, 2026.
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Announced next steps from Archer Aviation that mention Midnight.
2026-2027
Following the August 3, 2026 agreement, Korean Air will lead military conversion and systems integration of a Midnight-based platform for South Korea's Advanced Air Mobility defense program, with Archer providing airframe technology and FAA certification data. The two companies plan a staged roadmap toward a domestic component supply chain and export strategy; no contract value or delivery timeline had been disclosed as of late August 2026.
H2 2026
With Phase 3 formally closed and TIA unlocked, Archer is now in Phase 4 formal for-credit FAA testing, and the FAA approved Archer's quality management system during Q2 2026, unlocking for-credit conformity findings. The most closely-watched remaining milestone is a publicly demonstrated PILOTED transition flight - where a human pilot manually shifts Midnight from VTOL to forward-flight mode under FAA observation - slated for H2 2026. As of September 16, 2026 that flight had still not been publicly demonstrated, even after the July 30 Salinas-Monterey and September 4 Salinas-Hollister piloted city-to-city flights, both conventional takeoff and landing.
H2 2026
With Florida, New York, and Texas selected for the White House's eIPP, Archer needs to establish local teams, vertiport infrastructure, and procedures supporting supervised Midnight operations in H2 2026. Longer-range, Archer is the named official air taxi provider of the 2028 LA Olympics, and is building out Hawthorne Municipal Airport (master lease acquired December 2025) as the network's central operational hub. On August 24, 2026, Archer and AEG announced an exclusive multiyear partnership to develop downtown Los Angeles' first vertiport at L.A. LIVE. On September 4, 2026 Midnight completed the first 'No Roads' tour stop, a piloted Salinas-Hollister round trip (about 12 minutes and 125 mph each way); further Northern California, Los Angeles, Texas and Florida legs are planned in close coordination with the FAA. On September 10, 2026 ACES said it would site interoperable charging in Texas with TxDOT to support eIPP operations across the Texas Triangle.
Late 2026
Archer signed a definitive agreement on August 10, 2026 to acquire Boeing's Wisk Aero (autonomous eVTOL), Insitu (defense drones, over $200M annual revenue across operations in roughly 35 countries), and SkyGrid (airspace-management software). Boeing will hold a stake of nearly 20% (up to 19.75% of Class A shares) in Archer plus two warrants (each for $100M of Class A stock, exercisable at $13.00 and $17.88/share respectively), and has committed to invest up to $55M in an upcoming Archer funding round any time before March 31, 2027. The transaction is still subject to expiration of the Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust waiting period, with no complications reported as of Sept 4, 2026; closing is expected by year end 2026. Archer's stated integration plan is to fold Wisk's autonomy, flight-control, and sensor technology into Zee and deploy it on the uncrewed Halo platform first to harden it, then bring the autonomy stack back to the piloted Midnight air-taxi platform once the FAA is ready to certify autonomous flight for passenger operations. The deal would extend Archer into autonomous eVTOL, defense UAS, and airspace software beyond piloted Midnight.
2027
Following the July 20, 2026 unveiling of the jointly-developed autonomous, series hybrid-electric tilt-rotor platform, Archer and Anduril need to convert multiple full-scale surrogate test flights into a production aircraft, with first flight of the production Thunder defense variant targeted for 2027. Archer named Marubeni Aerospace as the strategic launch partner for the commercial 'Halo' variant on July 22, 2026 and said additional Halo commercial partners are expected later in 2026, opening a dual-use revenue path beyond piloted Midnight air-taxi operations.
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Archer Aviation announced around September 3, 2026 the launch of its 'No Roads' city-to-city flight tour, coordinated with the FAA and starting with Northern California routes to Hollister, Monterey, San Martin, San Jose, Oakland and San Francisco, following more than 70 test flights of its piloted four-seat Midnight air taxi in August alone. The tour is meant to pave the way for Archer to fly Midnight in the Los Angeles area, Texas and Florida as it prepares for its role as the official air taxi provider of the LA28 Games and its participation in the White House's eVTOL Integration Pilot Program, and Archer plans to unveil charging locations tied to its ACES consortium with BETA Technologies and Macquarie Capital along the route.
Archer Aviation reported Q2 2026 results on August 10: revenue of $5 million, up 213% sequentially and above analyst estimates, but a GAAP loss of $0.34 per share missed the $0.25 estimate on a $6 million one-time litigation settlement and non-cash warrant fair-value swings. Adjusted EBITDA loss was $177 million, the low end of prior guidance, and total liquidity fell to about $1.6 billion from $1.8 billion at Q1 end; Archer held its Q3 adjusted EBITDA guidance at a loss of $170-200 million as it continues flight testing toward Midnight's commercial debut.
Archer Aviation said its Midnight aircraft completed a piloted round trip between Salinas Municipal Airport and Monterey Regional Airport on July 30, with each roughly 9-minute leg using conventional runway takeoffs and landings rather than a full vertical-to-forward-flight transition. The flight demonstrated Midnight's regional range and speed ahead of planned eVTOL Integration Pilot Program operations, though a publicly demonstrated piloted transition flight - the milestone Archer still needs for FAA certification - had not occurred as of the flight.
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An aviation-specific AI foundation model built as a unified aviation-intelligence platform, trained on real-world operational data - ADS-B feeds from a global network of 6,000+ receivers, ATC communications, maps and charts, aircraft state, terrain, and weather. Designed to run offline/on-device as well as server-hosted, with target applications spanning airline operations, airspace management, UAV/autonomous-flight support, and pilot copilot assistance.
Archer's commercial variant of a dual-use, series hybrid-electric tiltrotor VTOL platform co-developed with Anduril Industries and unveiled at the July 2026 Farnborough International Airshow. Halo shares its airframe, hybrid-electric propulsion and core systems with Anduril's defense-focused 'Thunder' variant, and is aimed at offshore energy, freight, humanitarian and maritime missions with fully autonomous takeoff, cruise and landing.
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Airbus
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