By Lori Aratani
Twelve electric rotors whirring, a van-size aircraft lifted vertically into a bright sky and cruised smoothly over an artichoke field.
The 10-minute test flight in California, controlled from a nearby trailer, took Archer Aviation a small step closer to a future imagined for decades by dreamers, engineers and frustrated commuters: a time when it’s possible to soar over traffic in an air taxi.
Archer is aiming to launch its first commercially operated flights with a pilot and passengers within a year in Abu Dhabi.Credit: Archer via AP
Archer’s electrically powered mash-up of a helicopter and an aeroplane is among the first competitors seeking to earn certification to carry passengers under a category of aircraft envisioned under new rules by the US Federal Aviation Administration. Years after the world watched TV character George Jetson zip to work in his airborne cartoon commuter, the flying taxi may be on the cusp of reality.
Archer is aiming to launch its first commercially operated flights with a pilot and passengers within a year in Abu Dhabi. A competitor, Joby Aviation, says it is aiming to launch passenger service in Dubai as soon as late 2025.
Advancements in batteries and other technologies required for the futuristic tilt-rotor craft are moving so fast that they could soon move beyond the novelty stage and into broader commercial use in a matter of years. Both companies are laying plans to operate at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
“They have created these amazing new aircraft that really 10 or 15 years ago would’ve been unimaginable,” said Roger Connor, curator of the vertical flight collection at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.
“I think there’s something innately attractive about being able to leapfrog all of your terrestrial obstacles,” he said. “Who hasn’t wished that if you live in the suburbs that, you know, something could drop into your cul-de-sac and 15 minutes later you’re at the office.”
Business success is by no means assured for these craft, called electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, or eVTOLs. Scaling the industry from a novelty ride for the wealthy to a broadly available commuter option would take billions more in start-up money, executives said, including building out a network of take-off and landing areas (called vertiports) and charging stations.
It feels like the modern-day American Dream.
Adam Goldstein, CEO of Archer Aviation
Some high-profile ventures have already faltered. A plan for air taxis to transport spectators around the Paris Olympics fizzled. Lilium, a German eVTOL company, announced it had filed for insolvency last month.
Still, investors, including big names such as Stellantis and Toyota, have poured money into Silicon Valley companies such as Archer and Joby. Boeing and Airbus are developing versions. All are betting that quieter, greener and battery-powered aircraft can revolutionise the way people travel. Major US airlines including American, Delta, Southwest and United also are building relationships and planting seeds for deals with air taxi companies.
“It feels like the modern-day American Dream, where you can invent a technology and actually bring it to market even [if it’s] as crazy as what some people call flying cars,” said Archer Aviation CEO Adam Goldstein.
Congress included several provisions aimed at bolstering the growth of air taxis in 2024’s FAA reauthorisation bill. The industry got a major boost in the northern autumn, when the FAA released standards for pilot training and certification.
US President-elect Donald Trump appears to be supportive. In a 2023 speech, he said: “Just as the United States led the automobile revolution in the last century, I want to ensure that America, not China, leads the revolution in air mobility.”
Joby CEO JoeBen Bevirt said that, as the numbers of air taxis grew, they would become more accessible to the masses. But the multibillion-dollar question remains: Now that they’ve been built, can they be turned into a viable business?
“Urban air mobility is the big prize for these firms,” said Connor. “But it’s also the hardest to implement.”
On a recent morning, space heaters were blasting in what seemed like a vain attempt to warm the cavernous hangar at Salinas Municipal Airport that serves as the home for Archer’s four-passenger prototype aircraft, called Midnight.
The morning’s test flight was scheduled for 7am, but shortly before the hour, it became clear that conditions were too windy. Each test flight requires specific weather to deliver the information the team is seeking, and on this day that meant winds must be less than 19km/h.
There would be no pilot behind the controls the test; that will come later. It’s been programmed to autonomously fly a racetrack pattern above the agricultural fields near the airport. Its progress will be monitored by Archer’s own mission control, a team that includes a former US Air Force test pilot and several engineers, who sit in a nearby trailer.
Shortly before 11am, the wind is just right. From a field across from the airport, a group of observers watches as the 12 rotors on the aircraft begin to spin, lifting the 2900-kilogram craft, which hovers for just a few moments before the rotors tilt from vertical into horizontal, and it zips over the landscape in flight mode. About 10 minutes and just over 22 kilometres later, Midnight turns back to the airport, hovers briefly as the rotors return to a vertical position and slowly touches down.
About 37 kilometres from Archer’s operation in Salinas, Bevirt greets a visitor to Joby’s campus in Marina, California. The campus, based on a former army base, is not far from the Santa Cruz Mountains where Bevirt grew up. Over lunch, Bevirt talks about Joby’s plan to build out a network of air taxis and landing sites, starting with a few “nodes” and gradually expanding. He believes air taxis will one day revolutionise routine travel.
Joby Aviation’s pre-production prototype aircraft.Credit: Joby Aviation
“We had the transition from horses to railroads, and then from railroads to car,” said Bevirt. “And with each of those, it transformed our perception of distance and how far we could move in a day. And it allowed our cities to grow and to become more productive.”
On a tour of Joby’s manufacturing facilities, Bevirt points to a corner where spools of carbon fibre material that will be “baked” into aircraft components. At one work station, a robotic arm blasts water against a component to test for flaws. There’s also a model skyport lounge, with glass walls and lounge chairs.
The tour ends in a large hangar, home to three of Joby’s prototype aircraft, including the hydrogen-electric demonstrator craft that recently completed an 841-kilometre flight. Bevirt says ultimately what will drive a market for air taxi rides is the ability to avoid crushing highway commutes.
“It won’t happen overnight,” Bevirt said, “but when it does, it will have really profound implications because it will allow us to change our relationship with space and time.”
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