Archer Aviation and United Airlines have created a joint eVTOL advisory committee that will focus on advising on maintenance and operational concepts to recommend to Archer for its all-electric aircraft, aimed at driving towards best-in-class operational standards in the emerging eVTOL industry.

The committee is chaired by Archer vice president of engineering Dave Dennison and United Express TechOps strategy and operations managing director Mauricio Angel. The initial makeup of the committee is rounded out on the United side by director of maintenance programmes Jason Onorati, senior manager maintenance programmes Robert Bernard, director of materials Brian Johnson, senior manager UAX engines and engineering Monal Merchant and senior manager United Airlines Ventures Edward Espiritu. From Archer are CEO Adam Goldstein, COO Tom Muniz and maintainability lead Armando Chieffi.

Each of the committee chairs bring proven experience in aviation operations to the group. The other committee members bring complementary skills in the areas of maintenance, customer satisfaction and fleet management.

“The formation of this advisory committee further demonstrates Archer's commitment to building advanced infrastructure to support UAM at scale,” says Goldstein. “The committee is set up to leverage United's experience with industry-leading operating strategies in commercial aviation, a key tenet of our business strategy. We understand that the adoption of UAM is about more than just the certification of our aircraft. United's operational experience here will be invaluable as we work towards delivering aerial ridesharing at scale.”

“At United, we're proud to be expanding our collaboration with Archer with an advisory committee designed to focus on key operational strategies and electric aircraft performance needed to achieve our shared goal of sustainable urban air mobility, while addressing the scale and sophistication needed to operate successfully and most importantly delivering the high-quality user experience our customers require,” adds United Airlines Ventures president Michael Leskinen. “Assembling this group of industry-leading talent, and harnessing the valuable insights it yields, will be a vital step in enabling consumer adoption of eVTOL.”

Over the long-term, Archer's goal is to work with United to create UAM fleet support leveraging logistics concepts and networks already in use thereby creating operational efficiencies.

This is another milestone in Archer’s ongoing relationship with United Airlines that began in February of 2021 when United signed an industry-first agreement to purchase, subject to United’s business and operating requirements, $1 billion of Archer’s aircraft, with an option for an additional $500 million of aircraft. United’s track record in airline operations and its existing collaboration with Archer make it an ideal stakeholder to advise the company about the scope and build out of maintenance and operations plans.