Archer Aviation plans to expand city-to-city testing of its Midnight electric air taxi across the U.S., beginning with a series of flights in Northern California before extending the campaign to Southern California, Texas and Florida.
The company’s “No Roads” tour will begin with a flight to Hollister, California, followed by flights to Monterey, San Martin, San Jose, Oakland and San Francisco. Archer says it is coordinating the flights with the FAA.
The campaign follows more than 70 Midnight test flights completed during August and a recent piloted round trip between Salinas Municipal Airport and Monterey Regional Airport. Each leg of that flight took about 9 min., compared with more than 35 min. by car, Archer said.
Archer has not yet announced if Midnight has completed a full transition from vertical to wingborne flight. The aircraft is capable of conventional runway takeoffs and landings, and the company did not say the upcoming tour flights would involve vertical operations.
Archer intends to use the campaign partly to prepare for operations under the White House-backed eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (EIPP), as well as its planned role as the official air taxi provider for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic and Paralympic Games. The company has previously said it expects to begin piloted EIPP operations before the end of the year.
“I’ve talked a lot about the ‘Waymo Moment for air taxis’—the chance for us to get communities more comfortable with this tech,” Archer founder and CEO Adam Goldstein said. “This is the beginning of that story and our biggest step yet toward making air taxis an everyday reality in cities across America.”
The tour resembles rival Joby Aviation’s 2026 Electric Skies Tour, which began with piloted demonstrations around San Francisco Bay and subsequently included point-to-point VTOL flights between New York’s JFK International Airport and Manhattan heliports.
Beta Technologies also has accumulated extensive cross-country experience with its electric CTOL aircraft. The company says its fleet has flown more than 160,000 nm, including multiple trips across the U.S., while it has simultaneously expanded its charging network. Beta recently began EIPP operations on the East Coast, transporting manufactured organs in partnership with United Therapeutics.
Archer also plans to announce charging locations during the tour through the ACES consortium it formed with Beta and Macquarie Capital. The initiative aims to deploy interoperable electric aircraft charging infrastructure at up to 250 U.S. sites by 2030.
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