Midnight: New eVTOL air taxi is "1,000 times quieter than a helicopter", could fly by 2024

Flying taxi firm Archer Aviation just revealed its production aircraft, called Midnight, to the public at its Open House event in Palo Alto on November 16.

Archer's demonstrator electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, Maker, revealed to the world last year, has helped the company to test and hone its flying taxi technology.

Now, the Archer team is working towards certifying Midnight with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) towards the end of 2024, a press statement reveals.

Meet Midnight

Archer's Midnight aircraft has a 1,000 lb (453 kg) payload capacity and a 100-mile (160 km) range, though it is designed primarily for short 20-mile back-to-back journeys. The company says it would be ideal for the airport to city center trips, as it only requires a 10-minute charge time between journeys.

In fact, Archer announced its first eVTOL route in a partnership with United Airlines last week. That route will carry passengers between Newark Airport and downtown Manhattan. It's part of Archer's plan to utilize existing infrastructure, such as an existing heliport in Manhattan, for initial operations, before expanding its eVTOL airport infrastructure.

"Over time, we will build more infrastructure or work with companies to build more infrastructure," Archer's CEO and founder, Adam Goldstein, told Aviation International in an interview, adding that the company is also eyeing a route between Miami and Fort Lauderdale.

As with many other eVTOL air taxi designs, Archer's Midnight was built with high redundancy for safety and sustainability and low noise pollution in mind. The company claims the aircraft will cruise at approximately 2,000 feet and make a noise on the ground "1,000 times quieter than a helicopter". The eVTOL aircraft features 12 small propellers. It can carry four passengers and one pilot at a time.

Could 2024 be the year of the air taxi?

Archer revealed a whole host of new partnerships this week. The company also announced that it would build a manufacturing facility near the Covington Municipal Airport in Georgia, U.S. The company claims the facility will give it the capacity to produce up to 650 eVTOL aircraft per year starting in the second half of 2024.

The eVTOL firm also revealed a deal with Garmin this week. Garmin will supply its G3000 integrated flight deck for Archer's Midnight. Archer also announced it had entered an agreement with E-One Moli Energy Corp., or Molicel, to be the battery provider for Midnight.

Archer aims to have flight accreditation in 2024 in the U.S, though the company aims to launch operations in 2025 and eventually expand globally. If all goes to plan for the world's eVTOL firms, 2024 could be the year of the flying taxi, as several companies have stated they aim to start operations the same year.

For example, German air taxi startup Lilium aims to start operating its aircraft commercially in 2024. Another German company, Volocopter, also aims to start its services in Paris and Singapore by 2024.