Electric aircraft developer Archer Aviation provided a rare update on its flight test progress, announcing that a prototype of its Midnight air taxi completed a piloted, intercity flight in California on Thursday.
Archer said Monday that the aircraft conducted a round-trip journey between Salinas Municipal Airport (KSNS) and Monterey Regional Airport (KMRY) in “close coordination” with the FAA. The company shared a video depicting an aircraft with the tail number N703AX, which is a preproduction Midnight prototype.
Archer said the aircraft covered each leg of the trip, which would take about 35 minutes by car, in about nine minutes. Per FlightAware data, the outbound leg from Salinas to Monterey took eight minutes, while the return trip was flown in about 11 minutes.
eIPP Preparation Continues
Midnight recently completed a piloted roundtrip journey between Salinas Municipal Airport and Monterey Regional Airport as we prepare to begin operations later this year under the White House’s eIPP. Each leg of the roundtrip journey was completed… pic.twitter.com/VC2IW0CnYe
— Archer (@flyarcher) August 3, 2026
Archer framed the milestone as progress toward its planned activities under the FAA’s eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) Integration Pilot Program (eIPP). The eIPP, which is expected to span three years and 26 states, will comprise activities with precertified aircraft that are intended to generate data for regulators, informing their development of future operational rules.
The eIPP officially got underway in July with organ transport flights conducted by Beta Technologies and United Therapeutics in Maryland and Virginia. Archer said Monday that Midnight will begin eIPP activities this year in Florida, Texas, and New York, with CEO Adam Goldstein adding that last week’s flight will serve as a “template.”
“This round-trip journey is exactly the kind of route we plan to fly with Midnight under the eIPP and in [Los Angeles] during the [2028] Olympic Games,” Goldstein said in a news release.
Archer said in March that its latest test aircraft at the time was “on track” for piloted VTOL operations during the eIPP.
Next Steps
Archer is one of the first eVTOL manufacturers to complete a piloted, intercity flight. It did so about one year after rival Joby Aviation, which flew its S4 prototype from Marina, California, to Salinas for the 2025 California International Airshow.
Beta Technologies, another U.S. competitor, is conducting most of its testing with conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) prototypes. Another, Wisk Aero, began flight testing its full-scale eVTOL prototype in December.
Midnight also flew at the California International Airshow, but Archer did not mention an intercity flight. Per Aviation International News, those demonstrations also did not include a piloted transition from vertical- to forward-flight mode—the defining capability of an eVTOL.
Joby, whose S4 shares many similarities with Midnight, conducted its first piloted transition with a full-scale prototype in April 2025. Though Archer has completed a remotely piloted transition, it appears Midnight has yet to demonstrate its hover and wingborne capabilities on a single piloted flight.
Archer began CTOL flight testing in 2024 and said in March that piloted VTOL testing was underway, predicting Midnight would carry its first passengers this year. At the time, it was still working toward transition. In May, the company said its test aircraft are conducting piloted CTOL and VTOL flights “nearly every day, often multiple times a day.”
N703AX, which made the intercity flight, was part of Archer’s CTOL test campaign. Aviation International News in August 2025 reported that it will not be used for VTOL or transition flight testing until Archer replaces its propellers.
The video shared by the company Monday shows the aircraft accelerating into a runway takeoff and coming in for a conventional landing. Midnight has six fixed and six tilting propellers, and it must accelerate laterally after liftoff to complete the transition from the propellers to the wing without losing altitude.
Archer’s plans to ferry spectators, dignitaries, VIPs, and even athletes between venues during the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles will likely hinge on Midnight demonstrating piloted transition during the eIPP.
Using a Team USA-branded Midnight, Archer plans to shuttle passengers between Olympic venues in as little as 10 minutes. It is working with the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams to install vertiports at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, with other planned vertiports connecting regional airports such as Los Angeles International (KLAX).
Goldstein told FLYING at last year’s Paris Air Show that the goal is to provide an on-demand service at the Olympics.
“It’s the biggest show you could ever imagine, and it just so happens to be in the best city in America for this type of service,” he said.
However, without the ability to transition from vertical to forward flight, Midnight will be unable to use those vertiports and would instead require a runway for CTOL operation.
Still, Archer in May claimed it was the first eVTOL air taxi company to receive FAA approval of its certification test plans, leaving only formal testing and analysis. The company hopes to advance to type inspection authorization (TIA) of Midnight as soon as this year.
Archer did not respond to FLYING’s request for comment on this story.
