New high voltage battery packs power Archer’s prototype air taxi to Phase 1 flight test success.
After four years of preliminary flight testing, Archer’s Midnight aircraft has now finished its Phase 1 flight test phase after its battery system was recently upgraded to include some of the first high voltage battery packs available from the company’s battery manufacturing facility.
Phase 1 of Midnight’s flight test programme covered an array of progressively more complex flight manoeuvres and data gathering missions and with its completion, it can now expand its flight envelope further as it moves into Phase 2, which involves an incremental approach to speed testing.
This means that the VTOL aircraft will continue to fly at greater and greater speeds until it achieves full wing-borne transition. This is an important milestone for any vertical take-off and landing aircraft, as it demonstrates in a single flight the capability to both take off and land vertically and cruise efficiently in wingborne flight.
Once that’s completed, the aircraft will move to Phase 3, which entails flying simulated commercial routes to demonstrate the aircraft’s operational readiness.
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