A member of the US Air Force views Midnight during a recent testing flight. Credit: Archer Aviation.

Archer Aviation has delivered its first Midnight electric vertical take-off and landing (eVOTL) aircraft to the US Air Force (USAF) according to a company release on 15 August 2024.

The service will evaluate the platform as part of its AFWERX agility prime contract valued at up to $142m.

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As the innovation arm of the Department of the Air Force and a directorate within the Air Force Research Laboratory, AFWERX brings ingenuity from small businesses and start-ups in the US to address the most pressing challenges of the service.

Established in 2019, with five hubs and an annual budget of $1.4bn, AFWERX has executed over 6,100 new contracts worth more than $4bn to strengthen the US defense industrial base.

The delivery comes after the US Department of Defense accepted Midnight’s military airworthiness assessment, a critical approval that confirms Midnight’s readiness for flight testing by AFWERX. Until now, the platform has proven popular in the commercial world. In April, an agreement was signed that covers several multi-hundred-million dollar investments to accelerate Archer’s planned commercial air taxi operations in the United Arab Emirates.

Military evaluation allows AFWERX to conduct government-directed testing of the aircraft for the USAF and validate operational and military-specific mission concepts.

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A team of USAF personnel worked alongside Archer’s flight test team to ramp up operations with Midnight at Salinas, California. Together, the teams executed simulated medical evacuation, cargo, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance flights.

GlobaData intelligence indicates that the USAF agency has been a part of the programme since 2021.

Midnight represents the evolved version of Archer’s Maker prototype eVTOL aircraft, which successfully confirmed its unique 12-tilt-6 configuration and essential enabling technologies in November 2022.

Archer’s inaugural Midnight aircraft was assembled in May 2023, following a successful two-year flight test campaign involving two Maker aircraft.

The company aims to begin the commercial operations of the aircraft in 2025 and reach scaled operations by 2028. It is expected to deploy 6,000 Midnight aircraft by 2030, as part of its commercialisation strategy.