The first Midnight air taxi, an electric vertical take-off and landing (eVtol, electric vertical take-off and landing) aircraft developed by the American company Archer Aviation, is ready to make its maiden flight. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has in fact recognized the certification of the aircraft's safety systems, which allows the company to start testing in the skies in the coming weeks.

Archer "aims to reshape urban air travel, focusing on saving time for users in cities", explained the company's founders, entrepreneurs Brett Adcock and Adam Goldstein, years ago. The company recently raised 215 million dollars from investors (including Boeing, United Airlines, Ark Invest fund), of which 70 from the shareholder Stellantis. To date, a total of 1.1 billion dollars has been raised.

Archer Aviation's goal is to obtain certification within the next year and start production and marketing in 2025. Meanwhile, the value of the share on the New York Stock Exchange has risen by +18% in the last five days and by +237 % year to date. The company is currently developing several models, the first of which was announced on May 21, 2020.

On the matter see also the article published by AVIONEWS.

Below, the video. The images show the air taxi designed to fly distances of up to 100 miles, with a top speed of 150 miles. Powered by six independent battery packs, each driving a pair of electric motors, it has a recharge time of approximately 12 minutes. The aircraft aims to redefine the characteristics of commercial air travel: lower costs, safety, low noise impact.