Archer propels forward towards type certification of its eVTOL aircraft, with FAA approving G‑1 certification basis

The Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion (FAA) has approved G‑1 cer­ti­fi­ca­tion basis for Archer, which legit­imis­es the design and devel­op­ment of its eVTOL air­craft and allows for even­tu­al com­mer­cial use upon for­mal cer­ti­fi­ca­tion.

The G‑1 Issue Paper estab­lish­es the air­wor­thi­ness and envi­ron­men­tal require­ments nec­es­sary to achieve FAA Type Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and Archer has been active­ly engaged through the FAA’s Cen­ter for Emerg­ing Con­cepts & Inno­va­tion and the Los Ange­les Air­craft Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion Office.

With these require­ments now estab­lished, Archer is work­ing to finalise its G‑2 Issue Paper, which will set forth the means of com­pli­ance to meet the require­ments set forth in the G‑1 Issue Paper. Archer has been work­ing on the means of com­pli­ance for the G‑2 Issue Paper with the FAA since ear­li­er this year, as well as the nec­es­sary test­ing and meth­ods required to demon­strate safe­ty and com­pli­ance of our air­craft.

Archer’s Head of Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, Eric Wright, said: “Obtain­ing the G‑1 Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion Basis is a sig­nif­i­cant step for­ward towards Archer’s and the eVTOL industry’s goal of chang­ing how peo­ple will move around urban envi­ron­ments. This is an excit­ing time to be a part of the avi­a­tion indus­try as we work to elec­tri­fy the skies, and we look for­ward to con­tin­u­ing to part­ner with the FAA on rev­o­lu­tion­is­ing air­craft trans­porta­tion.” 

Brett Adcock, co-founder and co-CEO of Archer, added: “Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion con­tin­ues to be the shin­ing light at the end of our design and devel­op­ment tunnel,.“While there is still sig­nif­i­cant work ahead of us, we now have a basis agreed upon with the FAA that will allow us to bet­ter focus our efforts on our goal of obtain­ing cer­ti­fi­ca­tion on an effi­cient time­line.”

Last week, the com­pa­ny announced an agree­ment to explore the tech­ni­cal readi­ness and suit­abil­i­ty of Archer’s eVTOL air­craft for US Air Force pur­pos­es.

As Archer con­tin­ues its work towards achiev­ing FAA Type Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of its eVTOL air­craft, flight test­ing infor­ma­tion will enable the US Air Force to bet­ter iden­ti­fy oppor­tu­ni­ties for ear­ly adop­tion of Archer’s eVTOL air­craft with the poten­tial for pro­cure­ment and field­ing in the next three years.

As part of the agree­ment, Archer will pro­vide the USAF and the AFWERX Agili­ty Prime Office with data from cer­tain of its upcom­ing flight tests for the pur­pos­es of fur­ther­ing the USAF’s under­stand­ing of its aircraft’s capa­bil­i­ties, sys­tems and devel­op­ment pro­gres­sion.

The goal of the part­ner­ship is to con­duct test­ing of air­wor­thi­ness of Archer’s demon­stra­tor air­craft, Mak­er, which is tar­get­ed to begin flight test­ing in the months ahead. 

Adam Gold­stein, co-Founder and co-CEO of Archer, said: “We’re hon­oured to be work­ing with the Unit­ed States Air Force to explore the poten­tial appli­ca­tions of eVTOL air­craft in the com­ing years.

“As we con­tin­ue to progress toward our mis­sion of ush­er­ing in the next era of sus­tain­able urban air mobil­i­ty, work­ing with the USAF will allow for new oppor­tu­ni­ties to share Archer’s rev­o­lu­tion­ary approach to urban air mobil­i­ty. We’re excit­ed to begin this effort to fur­ther high­light the wide-rang­ing ben­e­fits of eVTOL air­craft.”