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Archer Aviation says it can eventually produce up to 650 aircraft per year at its factory in Covington, Georgia.
Archer says it has nearly completed construction of its mass-production facility in Covington, Georgia, where it plans to begin manufacturing type-conforming Midnight electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) air taxis beginning next year.
Located on a 100-acre site adjacent to the Covington Municipal Airport, the 350,000 ft.2 facility is on track to open “in the coming weeks,” Archer’s founder and CEO Adam Goldstein announced on the company’s third quarter (Q3) earnings call. The factory was built “on time and on budget at a cost of $65 million,” he noted.
With construction nearly complete, Goldstein says Archer plans to begin installing manufacturing line equipment by year-end, with the first assembly line to become operational by early next year. All told, he said the company plans to build 10 Midnight air taxis there next year, ramping up to a rate of two per month by year-end. Ultimately, he says the plant will be capable of churning out up to 650 aircraft per year.
The Midnight eVTOLs being built in Covington all will be piloted and type-conforming, meaning they are entirely representative of the aircraft Archer plans to type-certify and operate. Some of the initial batch produced next year will be used for the startup’s FAA type-certification campaign, while others will be used for piloted demonstrations and market-survey flights in international markets such as Abu Dhabi and Japan.
The first type-conforming Midnight, meanwhile, is being manufactured at Archer’s low-rate initial-production facility in San Jose, California. Chief Technology Officer Tom Muniz says the aircraft is in the systems-integration testing phase and “almost complete.” But he held off on declaring a firm target for an initial flight. Previously, management indicated plans to fly before the year-end.
Goldstein explained that Archer is moving at a methodical pace because it is manufacturing conforming aircraft that eventually will be carrying passengers and therefore must be built to the highest safety standards.
Archer’s main rival Joby, by contrast, has rolled out several pre-production prototypes but has not yet indicated when it plans to build a conforming aircraft.
“I know other groups are still producing—or I’ll call it rapidly producing—prototype aircraft that look like they don’t carry people, but these are piloted aircraft that will carry people,” Goldstein said. “The safety standard here is very high, and we’re making sure that we’re dotting every single ‘I’ and crossing every single ‘T’ because we will be going to market with these aircraft.”
On certification, Archer is focused largely on what it describes as the final stage of the FAA type-certification process, during which it performs tests and analyses to provide the agency with data for verification and compliance findings. The FAA already has approved 12% of Archer’s compliance verification documents, which Goldstein described as “quite advanced” and a “pretty high number, especially compared to the way some of the other groups break it out.”
The Archer CEO described a three-pronged plan for launching service in international markets. As an initial step, the company plans piloted local demonstration flights in the markets where it plans to launch service. Next, it expects to fly market survey trips carrying passengers on air taxi routes to build operational experience. These flights can be performed prior to type certification. Finally, the next step will be to launch commercial operations.
Archer wrapped up Q3 with cash and short-term investments totaling $502 million, excluding a commitment from Stellantis to finance up to $400 million in production costs at the Covington plant through 2030. The company is seeking shareholder approval for that agreement.
Total Q3 spending came to $122 million, flat from the previous quarter. Management estimates fourth quarter spending at $95-110 million. The company realized a Q3 net loss of $115 million, compared to $46 million in Q3 2023.
Archer was last tied for third place in SMG Consulting’s AAM Reality Index with a score of 7.9/10.
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