Hanneke Weitering is a writer and editor with AIN covering advanced air mobility and new flight technologies. She became an aviation journalist and joined the AIN team in the summer of 2022 after reporting on spaceflight and astronomy for six years at Space.com. After earning a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, she moved to New York City to pursue a master’s degree in science, health, and environmental reporting at New York University&#039;s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. She is now based in Seattle near Boeing Field and spends her free time exploring nature in the Pacific Northwest.

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Hanneke Weitering

Read the latest news about Archer Aviation. 

As Archer Aviation presses ahead with plans to launch electric air taxi services in the UAE this year, the U.S. manufacturer is slowly ramping up production of its four-passenger Midnight eVTOL aircraft. In its second-quarter earnings report, the company announced that three Midnight aircraft are in the final stages of assembly, with three more on the way.&nbsp;
Some of these new aircraft will support early operations abroad under <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/futureflight/2025-02-27/archer-picks-abu-dhabi-aviation-uae-evtol-launch">Archer’s “Launch Edition” program</a>, and the company plans to use some for FAA type inspection authorization (TIA) flight testing, which it said could begin later this year. Meanwhile, competing eVTOL developer Joby Aviation also recently announced that it has begun <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/futureflight/2025-08-07/joby-begins-assembly-confirming-electric-aircraft">assembling conforming aircraft for TIA testing</a> slated to begin in early 2026.&nbsp;
Archer closed the second quarter with $1.7 billion in cash and reported a net loss of $206 million, which was approximately double the net loss it reported in the previous two quarters. This loss was partly due to higher operating expenses, which increased by $32.1 million to $176.1 million over the quarter. Meanwhile, Archer raised $850 million in fresh capital during the quarter.
Although Archer did not report any significant progress on FAA type certification of the Midnight aircraft during the second quarter, the company noted in its letter to shareholders that the U.S. air safety regulator has “continued conducting reviews and inspections of our manufacturing operations as part of our production certificate efforts.”&nbsp;
In a quarterly earnings call, Archer CEO Adam Goldstein said the company is “aligning the progression of our type certification with our production certificate so that we can ramp manufacturing as soon as we receive Midnight type certification”—a milestone that will happen no sooner than 2026.&nbsp;
“We are discussing the potential for early deployments of our Midnight aircraft with the DOT [Department of Transportation] and FAA as soon as next year,” the company stated in its shareholder letter. Those early deployments could begin in <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/futureflight/2025-04-17/archer-and-united-reveal-new-york-city-evtol-network">New York City</a>, <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/futureflight/2024-08-08/archer-reveals-planned-los-angeles-vertiport-sites">Los Angeles</a>, or <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/futureflight/2024-06-21/archer-plans-evtol-air-taxi-routes-san-francisco">San Francisco</a>, where Archer already has infrastructure deals in place, Goldstein explained in the earnings call. Meanwhile, the company expects to begin receiving commercial payments from its “Launch Edition” program partners in Abu Dhabi later this year.
While the precise <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/futureflight/2025-08-01/faa-clears-evtol-certification-path-powered-lift-rules">timeline for FAA certification</a> of the Midnight aircraft and other competing eVTOL models in the U.S. remains unclear, an executive order President Trump signed in June could help to accelerate the process, Archer officials suggested. The company intends to submit a proposal to participate in the “eVTOL Integration Pilot Program” that <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/06/unleashing-american-drone-dominance/">the executive order</a> directs the FAA to launch in 2026. According to Archer, that program will “create immediate pathways for us to test and deploy our eVTOL aircraft in real-world use cases, fast-tracking integration into U.S. airspace.”
The pilot program could help Archer ensure that its Midnight aircraft is certified in time for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, for which the company was recently named the <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/futureflight/2025-05-15/archer-named-official-air-taxi-provider-2028-olympics-los">official air taxi provider</a>. However, Archer still has a long road ahead in terms of flight testing and certification.&nbsp;
<h2>Transition to CTOL Operations</h2>
Archer <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/futureflight/2025-06-03/archers-midnight-evtol-aircraft-starts-piloted-test-flights">began piloted flight tests</a> with a Midnight prototype in June, and so far it has only demonstrated conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) capabilities with pilots on board. It has yet to demonstrate a piloted transition flight, in which the aircraft transitions from vertical lift to fully wingborne cruise flight, although it achieved transition flights with an earlier uncrewed Midnight prototype.
“By design, we deliberately started with conventional takeoff and landing flights, as Midnight is uniquely capable of handling both vertical and conventional takeoff and landing as part of normal operations,” Goldstein said. “In recent years, our flight test campaigns have predominantly focused on VTOL and transition to wingborne flight. As we eye TIA later this year, it was essential to first work through the CTOL campaign.”
Tom Muniz, Archer’s chief technology officer, explained in the earnings call that the company has been focused on CTOL for two reasons: “First, throughout Midnight's design and certification process, regulators, airlines, and defense customers have stressed that they need us to certify both VTOL and CTOL operations for operational flexibility and enhanced safety, as well as extended range for certain missions.&nbsp;
“Second, it's the most pragmatic, safe approach to flight testing. Our strategy has been to first validate Midnight's fixed-wing flight and conventional landing performance, and then return to focus on VTOL with pilots on board in the back half of the year,” Muniz said. This strategy mirrors the approach taken by rival electric aircraft developer <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/news-article/2023-03-13/beta-technologies-plans-certify-electric-ctol-airplane">Beta Technologies</a>, which decided to commercialize a CTOL version of its eVTOL aircraft in 2023.&nbsp;
“We'll continue to ramp up the pace of pilot and flight testing, rapidly expanding our performance envelope and commencing piloted and VTOL operations in parallel,” Muniz said. He also noted that the uncrewed Midnight prototype has completed hundreds of unpiloted flights since it first took off in 2023, “so we got a huge amount of data on VTOL and transition.”&nbsp;
Goldstein added that Archer is “rapidly progressing through the flight envelope, hardening the aircraft's ability to handle our expected commercial operations.” For example, it has been conducting flights in the 20- to 30-mile range, mimicking anticipated commercial routes. “We also expanded our flight test program internationally with our first Launch Edition operations in the UAE, where we first focused on testing Midnight's performance in Abu Dhabi's extreme summer heat,” he said.

<h2>Production Ramps Up</h2>
Completion of the six aircraft currently in production will bring Archer’s Midnight fleet up to eight aircraft. “Each of those will carry our production four-bladed rear propeller design and will either go directly into certification flight testing or early commercial deployment,” Goldstein said.
Two Midnight prototypes, FAA-registered as N302AX (model Midzero) and N703AX (model M001), are in active flight testing. The <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/futureflight/2025-07-02/archer-flies-midnight-evtol-prototype-abu-dhabi">flight test campaign in Abu Dhabi</a> is using N302AX, an uncrewed technology demonstrator that <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/news-article/2023-10-25/archers-midnight-evtol-prototype-aircraft-makes-first-flight">first flew in 2023</a> and has achieved transition flights.&nbsp;
Archer’s subsequent pre-production prototype, N703AX, rolled off the production line in May and conducted the first pilot-on-board flights in June. Configured with Archer’s original two-bladed fixed lifting propellers, it is currently only capable of CTOL flight. N703AX will not be used for VTOL or transition flight testing until Archer replaces the propellers with the updated four-bladed design. For now, N703AX is regularly conducting CTOL flights at Archer’s facilities in Salinas, California.&nbsp;
Midnight production and assembly work is taking place at Archer’s facilities in Silicon Valley and <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/futureflight/2024-12-19/archer-completes-georgia-evtol-factory">Covington, Georgia</a>, where the company recently opened a 400,000 sq ft factory for high-volume manufacturing operations. Early work at the Covington factory has so far focused on manufacturing processes related to the aircraft’s fuselage, the company said in its second-quarter report.&nbsp;
Between its California and Georgia facilities, Archer aims to achieve an initial production rate of 50 Midnight aircraft per year when the aircraft enters service. The manufacturer has claimed that the Covington factory could potentially support rates of up to 650 aircraft per year in the future.
<h2>Archer Defense ‘Rapidly Maturing’ Hybrid VTOL</h2>
As Archer prepares to certify the Midnight aircraft with the FAA, it is also focused on a new aircraft program under <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/defense/2024-12-12/archer-plans-hybrid-vtol-aircraft-military-use">its Archer Defense business unit</a>, which the company established in December in partnership with Anduril Industries. That aircraft will feature a hybrid-electric powertrain with vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) capabilities, but it will not necessarily resemble Midnight.&nbsp;&nbsp;
“We are rapidly maturing the design of our new hybrid-electric aircraft,” Goldstein said in the earnings call. “While I can't share details on the mission parameters or aircraft requirements due to the sensitive nature of the development, what I can share is that we are focused on building a revolutionary aircraft, not simply a hybridized version of an eVTOL.”&nbsp;
To support the development of its military aircraft, Archer recently <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/defense/2025-08-11/archer-boosts-defense-capability-overair-ip-and-composites">acquired the patent portfolio</a> of rival eVTOL aircraft developer Overair and purchased a 60,000 sq ft manufacturing facility in Huntington Beach, California, from defense supplier Mission Critical Composites. “These moves continue to build our proprietary moat as we push to meet the demands of our growing defense pipeline,” Goldstein said. “Following recent meetings in Washington with Secretary Hegseth and Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll, it's clear that Archer Defense is positioned to become a strategic pillar of our business.”

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