The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued the final airworthiness criteria for Archer Aviation’s piloted four-passenger Midnight eVTOL aircraft, the company has announced. The significant regulatory milestone means Archer has been provided with a pathway to achieving type certification for Midnight, and it comes two months after Joby Aviation became the first eVTOL developer to achieve the feat with the U.S. regulator.
“Midnight is one giant step closer to taking passengers into the sky in the coming years in the U.S.,” said Billy Nolen, Archer chief regulatory affairs officer and former Administrator of the FAA. “Thank you to the team at the FAA for their continued hard work in support of making the electrification of aviation a reality.”
The FAA issued a notice of proposed airworthiness criteria for the Midnight back in December 2022. Among the differences between those proposals and the final criteria are changes to the aircraft performance section to incorporate an optional “increased performance” approval, requiring greater aircraft performance capabilities beyond the baseline “essential performance” approval.
The final criteria also include expectation for the aircraft to be capable of a controlled emergency landing following “any condition where the aircraft can no longer provide the commanded power or thrust required” for continued safe flight and landing.
Another area of modification is revised aeroelasticity criteria, in response to concerns from commenters related to “whirl flutter” and aeromechanical stability.
The finalization of the airworthiness criteria allows Archer to work with the FAA to obtain the remaining final approvals on its certification and test plans. The company is ramping up its “for credit” testing with the regulator, and hopes to begin piloted flight testing later this year.
The company said it has made “significant progress” on the construction of its first three piloted conforming Midnight aircraft.
The 6,500-pound maximum gross takeoff weight Midnight has a high wing and V-tail configuration with fixed tricycle landing gear.
The aircraft uses 12 electric engines — six with five-bladed variable pitch propellers on the forward edge of the wing (providing vertical and forward thrust), and six powering two-bladed fixed-pitch propellers on the aft edge of the wing (providing only vertical thrust).
