Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Japanese Leasing Group Backs Archer’s Halo Utility Drone
Halo is the commercial version of the Thunder autonomous platform
Archer Halo drone
Archer and Anduril are presenting the Halo drone as a commercial version of their Thunder military platform. © Archer Aviation

Japanese leasing group Marubeni Aerospace is helping Archer Aviation find use cases for the Halo autonomous aircraft it unveiled at the Farnborough International Airshow this week. The hybrid-electric model is part of a family of dual tiltrotor drones being developed by Archer and Anduril that also includes the Thunder military platform launched on July 20.

Archer has not confirmed any range or payload details for the Halo or Thunder, but said the hybrid-electric powertrain it has developed in-house will be sufficient “to support global self-deployment.”

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