Archer Aviation has completed 402 test flights during the year so far exceeding its goal
The 400 plus flights were conducted over the last eight months as the company ramps flight test operations in advance of for-credit flight testing with the FAA.
Adam Goldstein, CEO and founder of Archer said, “When we first set our goal for 400 flights this year it was viewed as aggressive, but we’ve already achieved it.”
Each flight produces critical data that Archer’s teams use to evaluate and refine aircraft loads, vibrations, performance and handling qualities.
Most recently, the Archer flight test team has focused on five key testing areas:
* Transition Flights: Continuing to conduct longer-distance and higher-speed transition flights to gather data, extend endurance and ensure maximum safety.
* High-Rate Operations: Increasing per-day flights to simulate the high cadence of Archer’s anticipated commercial operations and test Midnight’s durability.
* Advancing Landing Profiles: Completing a series of hover landings in various wind conditions with different rates of descent and flare heights to expand Midnight’s wind envelope and further optimize its landing profile.
* Enhancing Acoustic Measurement: Conducting a series of hover operations with various microphone arrays to collect supplemental data for the FAA and to further evaluate and tune Midnight’s noise signature.
* Optimising Control Laws: Regressing through the envelope with a series of optimizations made to the control laws which will extend Midnight’s endurance.
- UK manufacturing steps up to COVID-19 crisis - April 2, 2020
- Clustering Innovation - March 12, 2020
- A Global Monitor - March 6, 2020