Archer Aviation is pretty far along the road to EV air taxi. They have been flying for quite some time and are working on mass production and certification. It's a very impressive operation. The Midnight aircraft has a 142KWh pack consisting of 2170 cells. That seems surprisingly low. Midnight is far closer to certification testing than I would have imagined. I expect we will see Midnight flying people, but not paying customers, by next summer.
My previous post was misleading. They have been flying for some time but in unmanned, autonomous, mode. The Midnight has not yet carried people but I believe they are just waiting on certification. Also, they have a battery production line in place, as well as a bunch of testing and gear that will be used for certification, once their type is certified and they start making copies. I didn't see their airframe facility but it is presumably similar to any other composite manufacturer. I've never seen composites mass produced on a large scale, nor can I imagine how it could be possible if they are using a vacuum chamber. Somebody will figure it out, one day. Anyway, it looks to me like Archer Aviation has done a great job of nearing completion of the impossible. I consider their design notable based on the tilting rotors. While hovering, vertical takeoff, vertical landing, the Midnight is extremely inefficient. Once Midnight transitions to forward cruise, it is quite efficient. In fact, it's not all that much less efficient than a full size car. I saw some numbers but consider them speculation, since they aren't flying routes or carrying PAX and payload. Still, since I so enjoy wild speculation, even if Midnight ends up being 50% more expensive per distance than a car of similar capacity, it will likely take shorter routes and it will be substantially less time and, therefore, lower labor cost. The wild card will be maintenance cost. If we consider any congested city, Midnight should be substantially more efficient than automobile transport. At this moment in time, Archer Aviation looks to be a likely winner.
