Archer Aviation will resume flight testing of its two-seat Maker eVTOL aircraft technology demonstrator in the next few weeks, the company told financial analysts in a first-quarter results briefing on May 12. The start-up—which has so far conducted only one short hover flight, on Dec. 16, 2021—said it will progressively increase flight testing to several sorties per week until it is ready to make a full transition from vertical to horizontal flight by the end of 2022.
The company said it does not anticipate delays to its goal of being ready to start commercial air taxi services by the end of 2024, despite reports this week that the FAA is looking to revise the basis for approving eVTOL aircraft to “special condition” rules of its 21.17 (b) regulations. Until now, companies in the advanced air mobility sector have widely understood that existing 14 CFR Part 23 rules for small fixed-wing aircraft would be the foundation of their type certification campaigns.
