Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “United Airlines First Air Taxi Revealed: Archer Midnight eVTOL”.
The idea of catching a quick, affordable flight to your next destination in an Urban Air Taxi, maybe closer than you think this is midnight. The first production model aircraft from Archer Aviation we’ve all had that moment on our way to the airport you’re already late and traffic is at a standstill. But what, if that didn’t matter? What, if you could fly over all that gridlock, making the normally hour trip in a matter of minutes, startup, Archer and United Airlines say people in New York will have that option as early as 2025., they say for about a hundred bucks. You could catch a ride between downtown Manhattan to Newark Airport in this electric air taxi midnight is an example of, what’s known as an EV toll or electric vertical takeoff and Landing vehicle. Archer is one of several companies building these vehicles that use the same electric motors batteries and propellers the power everyday drones, but on a bigger scale.
Well, the cool thing about these vehicles are that we’re not waiting on any new science breakthroughs, so we’re not waiting on a new battery to come out, or you know some new special component that doesn’t exist yet today, and so that actually makes the the technology Sprint Much more achievable in the near term, midnight will carry up to four passengers, plus a pilot up to 100 miles at around 150 miles per hour cruising at around 2000 feet. It has a 48 foot wingspan with six independent batteries that power the 12 tilt rotors. Those rotors provide vertical lift for takeoff and Landing, but six of them also pivot forward for horizontal flight. We’Re an Airfield right now and we’re about to see a live demonstration of Archer’s prototype model.
That’S the Maker. Now, what we’re going to see is an actual transition flight. That means it will take off vertically then transition to horizontal flight. It came within about 500 feet of us, so we could really get a sense of how quiet this technology is compared to a helicopter, and that is one of the key selling points for midnight and other AV Tools they can fly in and out of urban areas.
Without a lot of the noise that comes from helicopters, Archer says you can expect to see the first midnights operating on what the company calls trunk routes, which are these airport to city center routes. It’S a route where there’s known demand and there’s willingness to pay. How do we know that well, Rideshare, does these routes every day and so Manhattan to Newark Airport is a great example.
This is a route where millions of people every year are taking this route they’re taking Rideshare they’re paying to do this and they’re typically spending 60 to 90 minutes in a car. To do this route. Archer says it will take just 10 minutes to charge the midnight in between those Newark to Manhattan. Trips United has already put down a deposit for 100 midnights, but while Archer has already flown its maker prototype, it’s still got some hurdles to clear before it can get passengers up in Midnight. It says it’s on track to reach FAA certification by the end of 2024. With the first delivery in 2025., that means you could be flying in one of these in just a few years, as you can imagine, midnight hasn’t actually flown yet, but Archer is in conversations with Los Angeles and Miami to bring their air taxi service to those cities.
That’S in addition to the already announced New York Route, so I want to know what you think would you want Archer’s air taxi service in your hometown? Let us know in those comments down below. If you enjoyed this video, please don’t forget to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to CNET for more, like it. .