Ahead of its test hover flight, California-based Archer Aviation said it has received its certificate of authorization (COA) and aircraft limitations from the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for its Maker eVTOL aircraft.
These are two key components needed before the company can receive its special airworthiness certificate to permit the Maker aircraft to start test flights.
In preparation for what the company hopes will be its first hover flight later this year, Archer has relocated its eVTOL aircraft from the development lab at its Palo Alto headquarters to a flight test facility in California.
“The relocation of Maker to our dedicated flight test facility marks the next chapter in our journey toward the future of flight,” said Brett Adcock, co-founder and co-CEO of Archer, in a press release. “This transition will allow our team to shift gears from our ‘ground phase’ to the ‘flight phase’ of our Maker roadmap.”
Matt Deal leads Archer’s flight test team of engineers, focused on integrating Maker’s mechanical and software elements to ensure a successful first hover flight. Earlier this month, Archer expanded its electric motor team, hiring Alan Tepe to lead the propulsion inverter design, and Jeremy Mayer to lead the motor design development.
The company said the two bring more than three decades of mechanical engineering and motor design experience to their roles at Archer. Tepe came to Archer after eight years at Tesla, where he held multiple high-level positions on the company’s mechanical engineering team. Meanwhile, Mayer most recently worked at Lucid Motors for seven years. Along with Tepe and Mayer, Archer hired more than 20 engineers from the now defunct Aerion Corporation earlier this summer.
“For the last few weeks, our team has been hard at work preparing Maker for transport to the test facility and, ultimately, for its first hover flight,” said Adam Goldstein, co-founder and co-CEO of Archer. “It’s been an exciting year for Archer. We recently went public listing on the [New York Stock Exchange], we unveiled Maker for the first time, and now this milestone puts us one step closer to our next goal: Maker taking flight.”
The company said it wants to certify its electric air taxi with the FAA by 2024.
