Archer Aviation expects to fly full transition flights with its Maker eVTOL aircraft by year end.

The work the team has put in during the first half of this year to upgrade and test the aircraft's tilt propeller system is proving successful. Archer believes that its progress from first hover flight through to full transition will be the fastest pace with which 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 2021 the Maker successfully completed its first hover test flight. After completing that, 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 centred around various hover scenarios to analyse the propeller system 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 commercialisation 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,” says CEO and founder Adam Goldstein.

“Our recent test flights with the Maker have shown impressive results,” adds chief engineer Dr Geoff Bower. Bower oversees the 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 five 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,” he adds.