Whether that coincides with FAA certification and Archer’s contract contingencies as noted above was not mentioned. Meagher offered no specific information on when the Air Force would receive its first Midnight, saying that it may be delivered in 2024. He expected Midnight flight testing to begin by mid-year, a date now passed.ĪFWERX’ chief offered no information on when Midnight will make its first flight and stressed that Goldstein’s public statements on the schedule are not something he would comment on. When I queried Archer’s CEO about that progress last March, he explained that Midnight was basically though two stages of the three-step FAA certification process, the third and yet to come step being the most difficult. In fact, Meagher says the contracts with Archer are “contingent upon their progress towards certification”. to match up with our analysis and see how their performance is progressing.”ĪFWERX is also looking to Midnight’s FAA certification in the 2024 timeframe. “What we’re doing in collaboration with these companies is essentially monitoring their technical and production readiness. Meagher is essentially a broad eVTOL learning opportunity. That’s a generous outlook on this exercise which according to Col. Meagher acknowledges that eVTOL makers’ go-to-market efforts will be manned (as required for FAA certification, approval neither has yet gained) but he contends that AFWERX’ interest is “not only to inform them of future roadmaps from a technology perspective that we’re interested in but also to give them insight on what things might make sense for investment from a dual-use perspective.” AFWERX says it has done due diligence on Archer’s tech but provided no assessment of its performance or maturity. Hence, its investment in such automation tech may not be what the Air Force expects. How much these have actually been fleshed out by Archer (and what may learned from them) is likely in doubt given that the company’s near to midterm commercial debut will be with piloted Midnight air taxis. Meagher added that some of the evaluation work will center on Archer’s automated detect-and-avoid technology, landing zone detection and other automated aircraft systems. That may be, but the eyebrow-raising cost differential and the lack of specific information underpinning it will presumably be of concern to congress and American taxpayers.
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