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Based on the success of its recent flight tests of Maker, Archer believes it will continue to  accelerate its progress to full transition flights by year-end. 


Archer is conducting multiple tests weekly as it progresses through Maker’s flight test campaign. 

SANTA CLARA, CA, June 28, 2022 - Archer Aviation Inc. (NYSE: ACHR) today announced that based on the recent successes seen in its Maker flight testing program it is confident it will achieve its goal of flying full transition flights with Maker by year end. The work the team put in during the first half of this year to upgrade and test the aircraft’s Tilt Propeller System (TPS) is proving successful. Archer believes that its progress from first hover flight through full transition will be the fastest pace any eVTOL company has reached this milestone.  Archer’s industry leading talent and its focus on using key enabling technologies that are in the market today have unlocked this historic progress.

In December of 2021 Maker successfully completed its first hover test flight. After completing that initial flight test, the engineering team spent the following months focused on advancing the development and testing of the systems needed to progress to full transition as efficiently as possible.  Flight testing during the most recent phase has centered around various hover scenarios to analyze the TPS in the air. As testing progresses, the flight envelope will be expanded with flights at increasing climb and descent rates, and airspeeds. Archer plans to continue to conduct multiple flight tests weekly as the campaign continues into the second half of this year.

“What differentiates Archer from other players in our industry is our approach to commercialization as well as our laser focus on achieving that goal. The advancements we are making in our flight test campaign are nothing short of remarkable. I wake up every day inspired by our team.” said Adam Goldstein, Archer’s Chief Executive Officer and founder.

“Our recent test flights with Maker have shown impressive results,” said Dr. Geoff Bower, Chief Engineer of Archer. Dr. Bower oversees Maker’s flight test campaign and brings over a decade of experience in the eVTOL aircraft industry during which he has helped design and build 5 previous generations of full-scale eVTOL aircraft and completed successful flight test campaigns. “The rigorous testing our team has completed over the past several months has helped not only validate our design, but also furthers our mission to certify our production aircraft.” 

Archer’s mission is to advance the benefits of sustainable air mobility. Archer’s goal is to move people throughout the world's cities in a quick, safe, sustainable, and cost-effective manner. Archer is designing and developing electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft for use in urban air mobility networks. Archer's team is based in Santa Clara, CA.

Based on the success of its recent flight tests of Maker, Archer believes it will continue to  accelerate its progress to full transition flights by year-end. 

Archer Flight Testing Gains Momentum, On Pace to Achieve Transition Flight By Year End 

Throughout our journey, we’ve sought to partner with those focused, like us, on the future of sustainable mobility. In February 2021 we entered into a collaboration agreement with Stellantis. This agreement has allowed us access to Stellantis’ engineering, supply chain, and manufacturing expertise as we build out our strategy and operations in these areas.

The key to electric mobility is undoubtedly batteries, yet batteries remain one of the largest obstacles to electric mobility innovation. Historically, battery cost has been identified as one of the most limiting factors to widespread adoption. As electric vehicle (EV) development progressed through the years, so too did the efforts to control battery costs. Scale has begun to trend pricing downward, with many pointing to exponential growth in the sector as the path to greater affordability. But while this development may benefit EV manufacturers with significantly large battery capacity requirements, other smaller mobility providers may not see similar benefits. Collaboration can make all the difference.

Our team worked closely with the battery supply-chain experts at Stellantis to expand our options for the ideal source of eVTOL batteries. Stellantis opened the doors to potential battery suppliers, and we began the conversations. We sought out suppliers that not only allow us to meet our goals for safety and durability, but also for costs that can drive accessible consumer pricing and a sustainable business model for Archer. 

Stellantis’ assistance to Archer extended beyond the supply chain, to working with us to create an exceptional experience inside our aircraft. Noise, vibration and harshness, often referred to as NVH, demand extensive development to minimize negative impacts on our passengers and Stellantis is helping us do that. 

It began with the vibration piece of the problem. Even before taking flight, our joint Stellantis and Archer teams were at work studying the vibration characteristics of the airframe. Impact hammers were used to apply force while accelerometers were used to measure the response of that force. We literally hit the airframe with a hammer and measured how that vibration traveled through the airframe into the cabin. Attention was paid to the seats, pilot displays, and more. This was done to understand which ‘paths’ transmit force most efficiently, as well as to identify the conditions that could lead to a reduction in that efficiency. The goal was to reduce the transmission of aerodynamic forces (airloads) through the aircraft structure into the cockpit, ensuring a smoother inflight experience for our passengers.

Next, the teams tackled the noise observed during the vibration testing. A speaker, referred to as the ‘source’, played white noise while pointed at the aircraft. Microphones placed on the exterior and interior of the aircraft then recorded the noise. This data allowed the teams to estimate how much noise is blocked by the fuselage, although no data specific to the individual components [of the fuselage] was provided, including wind screens and doors. If weight weren't an issue, we could simply add thick acoustic liners to the fuselage to reduce the noise, but we all know that weight is one of the most important issues for an electric aircraft. Thus, we need to apply noise treatments thoughtfully and efficiently if we are to maintain our production aircraft’s weight at targeted levels. As with vibration, it's critical to understand how each component of the fuselage contributes to the cabin noise levels. The teams accomplished this on Maker by performing a series of additional tests, adding and removing layers of acoustic treatments and measuring the results. These layers included polyethylene terephthalate (PET) for absorption and ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) closed-cell foam for transmission loss. The results of these tests helped identify key areas of noise improvement for the aircraft. 

Stellantis is a global leader in manufacturing and production system development, and the automaker shared its expertise in highly automated automotive production systems with our manufacturing engineering team. From Stellantis factory tours to evaluating our planned manufacturing processes, Stellantis’ manufacturing know-how has become a critical resource for our team. Together, we developed a list of ‘like processes’ which were then discussed in weekly technical deep dives sessions including processes covering automated application of sealant and adhesives, lift assist tooling for seat and windshield installation, and automated paint booth implementation. This detailed level of collaboration is key to Archer delivering on our production goals for our eVTOL aircraft.  

We continue forward on this path towards the future of air travel. We remain committed to urban air mobility that is safe, sustainable, and accessible. And with Stellantis as a partner, we are helping to lead the way for the industry.

Stronger With Stellantis

As we continue to advance the Maker Flight Test campaign, we recently began flying with our Tilt Propeller System activated. During our flight last week, we saw the first use of the Tilt Propeller System (TPS) for active control in hover, and the system performed as expected. Following the successful first hover flight of Maker in December 2021, the engineering team has been focused on installing and testing the TPS in Maker to prepare for more advanced transition envelope expansion flights. The TPS is a system of actuators, sensors and software that can move the angle of the forward six propellers relative to the wing in order to control the aircraft from hover through the transition to wing-borne flight in cruise. 

We have now returned Maker to the air with an updated configuration that supports transition flight. The assumptions we made around the TPS have been validated in our early test flights and, now that we’re expanding our testing program, I thought I would explain a bit of why we conduct flight testing, how we minimize risk during flight test, and some of what we expect to learn from it. 

Maker flight testing is the culmination of years of hard work at Archer in close collaboration with our suppliers -- designing, assembling, system testing, and debugging. Flight testing is ultimately how we prove that our aircraft design meets its requirements. It also allows us to acquire valuable data to continuously improve the design tools and reduce risk on our production program. 

Before we fly, we exercise every system to the greatest extent practical on the ground and in simulation. Some examples include proof loading of structural components beyond the loads we ever expect them to see in flight, running our propulsion system on a test stand and in a wind tunnel, and running hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulations that exercise our flight control hardware and software.

Towards the end of the ground testing phase we begin to close some of the control loops that will be active when the vehicle takes flight. This starts with tests of single motors and actuators to make sure they perform nominally and don’t have negative impacts on other systems. We then move to testing all actuators at once as they’ll be used in flight. One of our last tests before flight is to activate the inner loop controllers that maintain the vehicle attitude (roll, pitch, and yaw) to check for ground resonance or other aeroservoelastic interactions. We also simulate complete flights by playing back actuator commands from our Hardware-In-The-Loop (HIL) sim to the vehicle while it is strapped to the ground. The only parts of the control system that we can’t test on the ground are the outer loop controllers that allow the vehicle to track a pre-planned trajectory. We still have high confidence in these controllers due to extensive simulation and flight testing of our sub-scale aircraft.

During flight test, we minimize risk to the aircraft by methodical flight envelope expansion. A flight envelope is defined by a set of limits that the aircraft stays within; things like airspeed, altitude or climb rate. Early flights begin within a conservative envelope where we have high confidence in the vehicle stability by simulation and ground testing. Additional tests extend that envelope in small steps one dimension at a time. Key test parameters are monitored by engineers on the ground, and if something unexpected is seen, the aircraft is returned to the previously cleared envelope either automatically (for time sensitive issues), or via command by the ground station operators. 

During our flight tests we record gigabytes of data from multiple systems. This data is used to update our simulation models to further reduce risk in future flights. I like to think of it as a growing bubble of knowledge, reducing the fog (or uncertainty) at the boundaries of the current envelope.

Some of the key data the team will be looking for during our upcoming flight test campaign include:

Flight mechanics model validation, such as trim motor RPMs and power draw as a function of airspeed

Control system stability margins estimated using system identification methods

Processing data to improve simulation models of vehicle aerodynamics, battery performance, and motor efficiency to match flight test data. These will be used to predict performance for future flights

Characterizing the vibration and thermal environments for future airborne equipment qualification

Gathering acoustic data to validate our prediction toolchain

This is an extremely exciting time here at Archer as we get to see all our hard work literally take flight. We remain on track to achieve transition flight this year and, along with the Archer team, I look forward to sharing further progress as we continue to expand the Maker flight envelope. 

As we return Maker to the air with an updated configuration that supports transition flight, I thought I would explain a bit of why we conduct flight testing, how we minimize risk during flight test, and some of what we expect to learn from it. 

Archer Flight Test Program

Anderson will lead Archer’s commercial and operational efforts as the company moves toward launching one of the world’s first urban air mobility (UAM) ecosystems.



Anderson joins Archer’s senior leadership team after three years at Breeze Airways, where he served as Chief Operating Officer, and having served as part of the team that launched JetBlue. He also held roles at Azul, Virgin America, Boeing and Airbus.

San Jose, CA, June 14, 2022 - Archer Aviation Inc. (NYSE: ACHR) today announced the appointment of Tom Anderson as Chief Operating Officer, Urban Air Mobility. In his role, Anderson will oversee and direct Archer’s planned UAM operations, primarily focused on establishing its commercial operating service.

As Archer forges ahead towards a new era of sustainable air mobility, Anderson’s deep experience in airline management, operations, and fleet maintenance will help the company commercialize a UAM service utilizing the eVTOL aircraft Archer is developing.

Anderson comes to Archer after three years at Breeze Airways, where he served as Chief Operating Officer. Prior to that, he spent five years at ATR Aircraft as Senior Vice President, Programs and Customer Services. He also previously held high-level positions at Airbus, Virgin America and Boeing and was part of the initial launch team that took JetBlue from concept to its first flights. 

“I’ve spent my entire career focused on developing and scaling commercial aviation operations. I’m thrilled to join Archer at this pivotal juncture to help the company continue to innovate and redefine the future of transportation,” said Tom Anderson. “I am looking forward to advancing the company towards its commercial launch, capitalizing on the company’s strategic partnerships and introducing the public to the benefits of urban air mobility.” 

“Archer is dedicated to deepening its bench of aviation’s best and brightest talent,” said Adam Goldstein, Founder and CEO of Archer. “We’re thrilled to continue this trend by welcoming Tom to the team. For urban air mobility to become a reality, it’s critical that we focus not only on building and certifying a great product, but also on creating the ecosystem within which our aircraft can operate. Tom’s appointment moves Archer one step closer towards bringing urban air mobility to the masses, and transforming cities for the better.”

Continue to follow along with Archer’s journey via www.archer.com.

Archer’s mission is to advance the benefits of sustainable air mobility. Archer’s goal is to move people throughout the world's cities in a quick, safe, sustainable, and cost-effective manner. Archer is designing and developing electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft for use in urban air mobility. Archer's team is based in San Jose, CA. To learn more, visit www.archer.com. 

Archer Aviation Inc. (NYSE: ACHR) today announced the appointment of Tom Anderson as Chief Operating Officer, Urban Air Mobility. In his role, Anderson will oversee and direct Archer’s planned UAM operations, primarily focused on establishing its commercial operating service.

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