June 30, 2022 | The Future of American Mobility Will Be Built on Collaboration

Addressing the environmental and social issues of today's congested roads and defining a path forward through understanding viable, sustainable transportation solutions is a key focus of our Federal Government. The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure oversees all modes of transportation within the country, as well as critical infrastructure in urban areas. The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is one of the largest committees in Congress, and recently the Subcommittee on Aviation held a hearing to discover more about what is being done at U.S. airports to mitigate and prepare for the effects of climate change. Subcommittee Chair Rick Larsen (D-WA) opened by acknowledging that aviation accounts for as much as nine percent of the carbon emissions generated by U.S. transportation. To examine ways to reduce that amount, the subcommittee heard testimony from representatives from U.S. airports, airlines, and the aviation supply chain.

The potential benefits of green innovation in the aviation industry reach far beyond emissions targets. At Archer, our focus is on developing electric vertical take off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft that not only address growing concerns about fossil fuel propulsion, but also creating urban air mobility solutions that positively impact those communities as a whole. We are aiming to help reduce congestion, by delivering a new form of transportation that is low noise and accessible. This helps us to discover new ways for our eVTOL aircraft to positively impact our society and consciously choose green energy generation sources for our products as they launch such as solar and wind power. Our continued collaboration with AFWERX, the innovation arm of the Department of the Air Force, seeks to collaboratively establish safety and security standards, while simultaneously exploring new opportunities for improved distributed logistics and disaster response. You can read more about our work with AFWERX here.

We believe the key to successfully bringing this new form of transportation to market is collaboration. This collaboration needs to include both industry and government at all levels. Recently we welcomed Representative Stephanie Bice (R-OK) and Representative Jim Langevin (D-RI) to tour the Archer headquarters. Bice is in her first term serving Oklahoma's fifth congressional district. She serves on the House Armed Services Committee; Science, Space, and Technology Committee; and Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth Committee. In March, Bice was appointed to the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology, Research, Technology, and Laboratories of the Department of Defense (DOD). This commission will advise U.S. policy on emerging biotechnologies to better inform the DOD's strategies. Langevin represents Rhode Island's second congressional district. He serves on the House Armed Services Committee and Homeland Security Committee, where he is a member of the Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Innovation Subcommittee. Langevin is also a member of the House General Aviation Caucus and the House Aerospace Caucus which serves as a forum for industry briefings to Members of Congress and their staffs on the major issues that impact growth and innovation in the nation's space, civil aviation, and defense sectors.

While visiting Archer, Bice and Langevin had the opportunity to see our progress on Maker, our full-scale demonstrator eVTOL aircraft. They met with Adam Goldstein, CEO of Archer, and learned more about our forward-leaning vision from the teams working towards making it a reality. Bice and Langevin are both intently focused on working to better the lives of not just their constituents, but of all Americans. We welcomed the opportunity to educate them further on the progress in our eVTOL development, as well the potential benefits this new form of transportation can bring to our nation.

Aviation has been an increasingly vital and economically important part of the transportation sector since Orville and Wilbur Wright took to the skies early in the last century with key advancements in speed, efficiency and access to global or regional markets. The emerging electrification of the skies is poised to revolutionize transportation once again. In the months and years to come, we will continue to build on the collaborations we have underway with the FAA, Members of U.S. Congress, state and local governments and other industry participants. Together we can make the vision a reality.