Hawthorne Airport built the future once. It's about to do it again.
Our acquisition announced yesterday firmly plants the Archer flag in the heart of L.A., with plans for it to serve as our operational hub for our LA air taxi network. It is strategically located less than three miles from LAX, and is the closest airport to some of the city’s biggest attractions — SoFi Stadium, The Forum, Intuit Dome, and Downtown L.A. The airport will also act as a test bed for the AI-powered aviation technologies we’re developing and plan to deploy with our airline and technology partners.
The historic Hawthorne Airport was built in the 1920s to attract Jack Northrup to build his company here. That led to Hawthorne Airport becoming a vital military asset used by the U.S. Army during WWII for manufacturing and modifying aircraft like the P-61 Black Widow.
Today, we’re sharing our Q1’26 results. Here’s the latest:
☑️US operations expected to begin this year under eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP)
☑️Advanced commercial readiness with expanded piloted flight test program & operational control of Hawthorne Airport in LA
☑️Record certification progress as Archer is first to close Phase 3
of the FAA’s 4-phase Type Cert process for eVTOL aircraft
☑️Significant progress made on dual-use, hybrid aircraft with a program award expected this year
☑️Rapidly advancing AI stack through partnerships with NVIDIA, Palantir and Starlink amid DOT’s $12.5B ATC modernization effort
☑️Strong liquidity with Q1 ending at $1.8B
Read the full shareholder letter at the link in our bio.
Highlights from our most expansive quarter for our flight test program, with piloted VTOL and CTOL flights across our expanded fleet on a near-daily basis and often multiple times a day.
Midnight is designed to be capable of taking off and landing conventionally (CTOL) or vertically (VTOL) to serve the full spectrum of flight operations and safety standards.
This dual-mode capability gives it the flexibility to operate safely across a wide range of infrastructure, from traditional airports and runways to urban vertiports and constrained landing zones.
Certification Progress in the UAE 🇦🇪
After over a year of collaborating on our aircraft qualification program, the UAE’s regulator, the General Civil Aviation Authority @gcaauae , and Archer have aligned on a streamlined path for Midnight’s entry into service in the UAE by moving Midnight into a Restricted Type Certificate (RTC) program approach.
Archer is the first eVTOL manufacturer to transition to an RTC certification track with the GCAA, utilizing an airworthiness pathway aligned with international aviation frameworks that offers a streamlined approach toward early stage commercial operations of Midnight in the UAE.
A cornerstone of this advanced regulatory phase is initiating a GCAA Design Organization Approval (DOA) and Production Organization Approval (POA). These designations signify a high degree of trust in Archer’s engineering and safety management systems.
More at the link in our bio.
Now operating Archer FBO.
After acquiring the FBO at Hawthorne Airport, Archer is now offering full airport services at KHHR, the most conveniently located private airport in Los Angeles. Minutes from LAX, SoFi Stadium, and Downtown LA.
A look back at Archer’s Pilot Summit with @United , where their top pilots met with the Archer Airline team to familiarize themselves with our technology, take a spin in our flight simulator and put Midnight’s intuitive controls to the test.
