April 25, 2022 | Archer Flight Club: Round 4 - Flying Experience Questions & Answers

Flight Club was born from the desire to discover more. As we continue to test, design, and discover on this journey towards an Urban Air Mobility future, there are still many questions left to answer. Many are eager to learn what the reality of an aerial rideshare looks like, what the experience will be like for them, and how our aircraft development could help make it a reality. Compiled here are a handful of the latest Flight Club questions, answered by the Archers leading the way. Round 4 begins now.

Q: Will passengers be able to book multi-leg journeys? - timy_oh, Twitter

A: Archer is building a dynamic, multimodal network with the goal of allowing future riders to enjoy the convenience and flexibility of movement around our communities. Our plan is that, initially, the vertiport network will be in a few high-demand locations that offer point-to-point travel and then, over time, the network will expand to support multi-leg trips to allow for even more options. For example, if one wanted to travel from LA to San Diego, once Archer has set up networks in both cities, we would operate a multi-leg journey to connect the entire SoCal region. - Andrew Cummins, Director of Business Development

Q: Is Archer looking for partners to build ports of takeoff such as inner city infrastructure project, or will this initially be from airports? What cities have been most open to Archer and any required infrastructure? - Roro_McFarland, Twitter

A: Archer's vertiport development plan includes the use of existing infrastructure and new build facilities. Here are a few of the options we're exploring:

1. Existing aviation infrastructure - This includes both airports and helipads. There are over 5,000 public use airports, and an even larger number of helipads, in the US. We believe these underutilized aviation assets will form a strong foundation for our early operations.
2. Existing city infrastructure - This includes ground infrastructure such as parking structures. Parking structures are a great fit for Archer's urban air mobility (UAM) operations since they are: well-located in convenient locations; structurally built to handle large moving loads; underutilized on the rooftops.
3. New build facilities - This includes new development projects that could be integrated into other transportation infrastructure (e.g., metro station) to form a multimodal network or as part of future real-estate projects. These new vertiport projects are part of our expansion plans after the initial launch of our UAM service.

When it comes to retrofitting existing infrastructure or building new facilities, Archer is evaluating all of our options, including partnering with infrastructure owners and operators. We view collaboration as the key to successfully launching the industry. Not only is collaboration with other stakeholders in the UAM ecosystem important, but so too is our close cooperation with city partners. We have announced LA and Miami as our initial launch markets and both cities are working to build a strong policy foundation to enable the launch of urban air mobility in their communities.

- Andrew Cummins, Director of Business Development

Q: What are the steps you are taking to make these affordable in the long term? - K_Krishna_C, Twitter

A: To achieve our mission of advancing the benefits of sustainable air mobility, we strive to provide a UAM service that is accessible to a majority of people in the communities in which we will operate. To do that, Archer has a plan to achieve pricing over time that is competitive with car ridesharing as we scale the business:

1. Aircraft Production Scale - Our partnership with Stellantis will support Archer's aircraft production capability, especially in areas such as scaled and advanced manufacturing. As we continually improve our manufacturing processes and production volumes, this will help reduce the cost to build our aircraft.
2. Aircraft Utilization - We are working diligently with our partners to commercialize a service that we are confident will be greatly beneficial to communities and support growing levels of ridership over time. As we scale our UAM operations, ridership of our aerial ridesharing service will increase, which will help reduce the price per passenger mile.
3. Technology Integration - Archer is developing technology to support a safe, efficient and affordable aerial ridesharing service. For example, while Archer's aircraft will be piloted when we begin operation, we are working to develop autonomous flight technology that we would enable on the aircraft once the FAA allows the technology to be used for passenger flights. - Andrew Cummins, Director of Business Development

Q: When can I take a flight? - K_Krishna_C, Twitter

A: Archer is working towards certifying its aircraft with the Federal Aviation Administration and has already reached some significant milestones in the process, such as finalizing our G-1 Issue Paper with the FAA. Once we achieve FAA certification, we intend to launch our aerial ridesharing service shortly thereafter. We look forward to having you on board! - Andrew Cummins, Director of Business Development

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