Archer Aviation has released its operating and financial results for the second quarter ended 30 June, 2022.

Key operating highlights include the recent receipt of a $10 million deposit from United Airlines for 100 of the company's initial production eVTOL aircraft and the successful completion of two phases of Maker's test flight campaign, validating key technical data enabling advancements in Archer's production aircraft.

The company has also successfully completed preliminary design review for its four passenger, piloted production aircraft named Midnight, and critical performance metrics have been validated. Midnight is expected to have a payload of over 1,000 pounds and charging turnaround time of approximately 10 minutes on Archer's target missions, enabling its UAM network operating model.

CEO Adam Goldstein says: “Archer is now advancing our commercialisation efforts. We are executing our plan, including the development and certification of our production aircraft, Midnight, and initiating efforts for our early launch markets for commercial operations. Our recent successful completion of Midnight's Preliminary Design Review provides us confidence that our technology supports our commercial objectives. These accomplishments are validated by United Airlines $10 million pre-delivery payment. It's an exciting time at Archer.”

Archer's financial estimates for the third quarter of 2022 are GAAP total operating expenses of $95 million to $103 million and non-GAAP total operating expenses of $63 million to $71 million. This reflects expected stock-based compensation, warrant expense and other one-time expenses of approximately $32 million.