Archer Aviation (Archer) has announced that further to United Airline’s agreement to buy up to 200 of its electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, the airline has made an advance payment of US$10 million (£8.25 million) as a pre-delivery deposit on 100 of the planes.
Archer recently completed its production aircraft’s Preliminary Design Review (PDR) and is now progressing on to the next stage of development and commercialisation of the aircraft. The PDR is a meticulous review of the aircraft design which ensures that the programme is on course and the design is sufficiently mature to proceed to the next phase of development and commence production of long lead time hardware. The PDR lays out all aspects of the aircraft’s specifications and manufacturing requirements, necessary pre-conditions for determinations that the design is feasible for regulatory compliance and viable to bring to market.
The pre-delivery cash deposit continues a trend of strong support by the airline throughout development of its aircraft. Recently, United formed a Joint eVTOL Advisory Committee with Archer, allowing the parties to work more closely on eVTOL maintenance and operational matters.
