By Staff Reporter
The US-based Archer Aviation, which will launch flying taxis in the UAE, will begin test flights in the summer to monitor the impact of extreme temperatures on the Midnight aircraft and within the cabin, its CEO said.
Adam Goldstein, founder and CEO of Archer, said they will later start flights in and around UAE cities and perform survey flights with limited passengers ahead of the full commercial launch.
During the summer, he said, Archer will deliver its first pilot of the night to Abu Dhabi and begin flight testing in the country with that aircraft.
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“We’ll focus our efforts on testing it in high-temperature operations as conditions there can exceed 110 degrees during the day. Fortunately, Midnight is designed to support this operating environment, including a Honeywell climate control system that is designed to maintain comfortable cabin temperatures.
“Subsequent to that, we plan to start flights in and around cities in the UAE, performing proving runs to and from some of the locations on our intended network and performing market survey flights with limited passenger operations, working towards our ultimate commercial launch,” Goldstein said during a conference call after the fourth quarter results.
Last week, Archer Aviation announced a ‘Launch Edition’ commercialisation programme for its Midnight aircraft — which will be used as a flying taxi in the UAE. Abu Dhabi Aviation (ADA) is Archer’s first ‘Launch Edition’ customer, with plans to deploy an initial fleet of Midnight aircraft.
Archer personnel will now work together with Abu Dhabi Aviation to fly Midnight in the country, targeting passenger flights in Abu Dhabi. The two will also collaborate across pilot training, flight operations and community engagement.
The piloted four-passenger Midnight flying taxi in the UAE will reduce 60-90-minute commutes by car to just 10-30 minutes.
Accelerating efforts
Archer CEO said they’re working closely with the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) to ensure that they have “an expedited pathway to early operations in the country”.
He said, “Our progress in the UAE has catalysed further interest across the broader Middle East, Asia and Africa, with many countries in talks with us to bring early commercial operation ahead of our type certification in the US, creating multiple opportunities for us later this year and into next in the US.”
“I’m excited to announce that we’ve now finalised our project-specific certification plan with the GCAA. This document outlines the steps needed to bring Midnight to market in the country, which we are well down the path. We have already begun submitting compliance data to the UAE for review and acceptance. I expect to work in earnest on that throughout the first half of this year,” he added.
Archer chief revealed that they’re working with the UAE’s GCAA to certify Midnight locally.
Using existing infrastructure
The US firm aims to launch five nodes per vertiport and will be mostly using existing infrastructure to roll out flying taxi operations in Abu Dhabi along with UAE partners.
“In the UAE, we have plans to launch a five node per vertiport network in Abu Dhabi, and all of these will be leveraging existing infrastructure locations which will allow us to move really quickly and allow the country to minimise spending,” said Goldstein.
A node is a point which connects flights and passenger traffic or a connection point for different transportation modes such as air, ground and water transport.
There are hundreds of helicopter landing sites across the UAE — mostly in Abu Dhabi — which could also serve as a vertiport in the future as the aviation industry grows.
Falcon Aviation, Archer’s partner to launch flying taxis in UAE, currently manages helipads at Marina Mall, Abu Dhabi Cruise Terminal, F-1 Yas Links in Abu Dhabi and Atlantis, the Palm, District 2020 and La Mer in Dubai.
“Our partner, Abu Dhabi Aviation, is the UAE’s largest helicopter operator, and they already safely carry passengers to and from many of these locations today. So you’re seeing a lot of the existing infrastructure that can put together. And then we have other partners like Falcon Aviation, which are converting some of their key locations in Marina Mall and Abu Dhabi Cruise Terminal. They have helped stand up this network for us. That’s a good example of a country that’s moving to really help make sure that we can load this up,” Goldstein said during a conference call.
This year, Archer plans to build up to 10 Midnight aircraft, three heavily instrumented for flight testing, and the remainder as launch edition aircraft for early commercial deployment, he added.
