Archer Aviation精东影业 electric vehicle takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft Midnight has completed its first-ever transition flight, successfully moving from vertical takeoff to wing-borne flight.
The flight was conducted at Archer精东影业 flight test facility in Salinas, California, on June 8, 2024, where Midnight reached speeds of over 100 mph before landing safely.
Although the flight represents Midnight精东影业 first airborne transition, Archer initially achieved the feat using its smaller full-scale eVTOL aircraft, Maker, in November 2022.聽
鈥淭ransitioning two generations of full-scale eVTOL aircraft in less than 2 years is another remarkable achievement for Archer精东影业 team. This shows we continue to successfully execute against our plan to create the most efficient path to market with an aircraft that is designed for certification and to be manufactured efficiently at scale,鈥 said Adam Goldstein, Archer精东影业 Founder and CEO.
In a statement on June 12, 2024, Archer said that Midnight is thought to be among one of the largest eVTOLs to complete transition, which it said is 鈥渃ritical to being able to carry commercially viable passenger payloads鈥.聽
Only seven months ago Archer announced that Midnight had successfully completed its first flight.
Archer has already established important relationships with United Airlines and the United States Air Force (USAF) which have both agreed to purchase Midnight aircraft.
鈥淪uccessfully completing the transition from hover to wing-borne flight with a full-scale eVTOL aircraft is a tremendous engineering feat that only a handful of companies in the world have achieved,鈥 Dr. Geoff Bower, Archer精东影业 Chief Engineer, said. 鈥淥ver the seven eVTOL aircraft I鈥檝e built and flown in my career, they have gotten progressively larger as we pursued payloads that made the aircraft platform commercially viable. 鈥
A transition flight occurs when the aircraft takes off vertically like a helicopter, accelerates forward, transitions from thrust-borne to wing-borne flight like an airplane with tilt propellers forward before decelerating and landing vertically.聽
