Archer Aviation (NYSE:ACHR) flew its all-electric Midnight air taxi more than 200 miles across the San Francisco Bay Area over three days, the company said on October 19.
The piloted flights took Midnight through airspace shared by three international airports, San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose, a test of whether electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft can work alongside dense commercial traffic. A hop from Oakland International Airport to San Francisco’s Marina District took about 10 minutes, a journey that can take more than an hour by car in traffic. Manufacturers are already lining up tourism customers ahead of certification: Brazilian rival Eve signed a 30-aircraft letter in July covering tourism routes in Cabo Verde.
The “No Roads” tour began in Salinas and stopped at Hollister, San Martin, San Jose, Mountain View and Hayward before the Oakland leg over the bay. Midnight visited seven cities in total and reached a top speed of 131 mph (211 km/h).
Founder and CEO Adam Goldstein said the flights showed Midnight could connect communities with “no roads, no traffic, and no emissions in minutes instead of hours”.
Archer pointed to the aircraft’s low noise and zero operating emissions. Midnight flew at the California International Airshow on September 22, after earlier round trips from Salinas to Monterey and Hollister.
The company plans to fly Midnight in Los Angeles next as it prepares to operate under the White House’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP), a federal scheme for early eVTOL operations in the US.
Founded in 2018, Silicon Valley-based Archer is developing Midnight as a piloted aircraft carrying four passengers. It has announced plans to launch services in Abu Dhabi and counts United Airlines among its US partners.
