Archer, March 11, 2023 - At Archer, we’re driven by realistic innovation. We focus on the key enabling technologies that we believe will allow us to achieve the most efficient path to commercializing our business.
We believe our powertrain technology is industry-leading and a key differentiator that has been developed by our world-class engineering team. Midnight’s powertrain is being optimized for safety, efficiency (i.e., maximizing our payload and range while minimizing charge time) and for mass manufacturability.
Midnight utilizes six lithium ion (Li-ion) battery packs, each powering a pair of electric engines (12 in total). While Li-ion is an excellent method of sustainable energy storage, it is heavy.
In order to ensure Midnight can carry four passengers plus a pilot for back-to-back 20-mile trips, with a charging time of approximately 10 minutes in-between, our team had to minimize mass while balancing energy requirements. Understanding energy use over the course of each flight was an important step in determining the viability of our design.
To maximize the efficiency of that energy use we had to develop an electric engine design that balances power and efficiency. Generating vertical lift for an aircraft requires an immense amount of power, and the electric engines also had to follow similar design considerations as our battery packs.
What resulted from our development was an electric engine design that’s safe, ready for mass production, and extremely efficient. In comparison to an internal combustion aircraft engine, our design is five times lighter, has 21 times fewer moving parts, and has four times lower energy costs.
Realistic innovation means building an eVTOL aircraft that is optimized for our planned commercial operations and that can be manufactured at scale. We believe Midnight will deliver just that.
We believe our powertrain technology is industry-leading and a key differentiator that has been developed by our world-class engineering team. Midnight’s powertrain is being optimized for safety, efficiency (i.e., maximizing our payload and range while minimizing charge time) and for mass manufacturability.
Midnight utilizes six lithium ion (Li-ion) battery packs, each powering a pair of electric engines (12 in total). While Li-ion is an excellent method of sustainable energy storage, it is heavy.
In order to ensure Midnight can carry four passengers plus a pilot for back-to-back 20-mile trips, with a charging time of approximately 10 minutes in-between, our team had to minimize mass while balancing energy requirements. Understanding energy use over the course of each flight was an important step in determining the viability of our design.
To maximize the efficiency of that energy use we had to develop an electric engine design that balances power and efficiency. Generating vertical lift for an aircraft requires an immense amount of power, and the electric engines also had to follow similar design considerations as our battery packs.
What resulted from our development was an electric engine design that’s safe, ready for mass production, and extremely efficient. In comparison to an internal combustion aircraft engine, our design is five times lighter, has 21 times fewer moving parts, and has four times lower energy costs.
Realistic innovation means building an eVTOL aircraft that is optimized for our planned commercial operations and that can be manufactured at scale. We believe Midnight will deliver just that.
See also |
Archer Midnight
Helicopters Engines 
