Archer Enters Into Agreement for Supply of Key Fuselage and Wing Elements with FACC

Archer Avi­a­tion and air­craft com­po­nents man­u­fac­tur­er FACC have entered into an agree­ment to fab­ri­cate and sup­ply key fuse­lage and wing ele­ments for an eVTOL air­craft cur­rent­ly under devel­op­ment.

FACC devel­ops, designs and man­u­fac­tures advanced light­weight sys­tems for the aero­space indus­try with years of expe­ri­ence in pro­duc­ing high-qual­i­ty aerostruc­tures, which were deci­sive fac­tors in Archer choos­ing FACC to help ensure that its pro­duc­tion air­craft can achieve its tar­get range and pay­load capa­bil­i­ties.

Archer CEO Adam Gold­stein said: “Work­ing with estab­lished lead­ers in the sup­ply of aero­space com­po­nents will help dri­ve our long-term suc­cess and our choice to work with FACC cer­tain­ly reflects that.

“FACC’s proven track record in fab­ri­cat­ing advanced com­pos­ite struc­tures for the aero­space indus­try, cou­pled with their focus on inno­va­tion and safe­ty, makes them the per­fect sup­pli­er for some of the most sig­nif­i­cant ele­ments of our air­craft struc­ture.”

FACC CEO Robert Machtlinger added: “We are excep­tion­al­ly proud to be able to count Archer among our cus­tomers as one of the mar­ket lead­ers in the emerg­ing field of Urban Air Mobil­i­ty.

“We expect this excit­ing new area of avi­a­tion to show strong growth and we are thrilled to be part of the jour­ney with such an inno­v­a­tive part­ner.”

In 2021, FACC gen­er­at­ed sales of EUR 497.6 mil­lion, with 3,000 employ­ees from 41 nations employed at 13 loca­tions world­wide. The com­pa­ny is list­ed on the Vien­na Stock Exchange and is part of the For­tune 500 group Avi­a­tion Indus­try Cor­po­ra­tion of Chi­na (AVIC).

In April, Archer announced an agree­ment with Hex­cel for the sup­ply of high-per­for­mance car­bon fibre mate­r­i­al to be used in the man­u­fac­tur­ing of Archer’s pro­duc­tion air­craft.

Lat­er in April, Archer and Unit­ed Air­lines cre­at­ed a joint eVTOL advi­so­ry com­mit­tee, to focus on the devel­op­ment of sys­tems and fea­tures for the wide­spread adop­tion of urban air mobil­i­ty (UAM) and eVTOL air­craft.

It will also act as a forum for Unit­ed to share its exper­tise on main­te­nance and oper­a­tional mat­ters as Archer moves for­ward in its air­craft devel­op­ment process.