Archer Aviation (ACHR) shares popped more than 4% after the company announced it had reached a significant milestone with its Midnight aircraft.
On June 8, Midnight successfully performed a "transition flight," which involves taking off vertically like a helicopter, accelerating forward, transitioning to wing-borne flight with tilt propellers, and landing vertically – one of the more challenging milestones on the path to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Type Certification.
Archer said Midnight is its second aircraft to achieve this, following the Maker's successful transition in 2022.
“In our view, Archer’s ability to accomplish not one, but two transition flights over two generations of full-scale eVTOL aircraft in under two years provides added credibility to the company, especially when considering the size of the production series Midnight aircraft,” analysts said in a note.
“Midnight weighs approximately 6,500 lbs and is one of the largest eVTOL aircraft vying for commercialization, so the fact that it was able to successfully perform full transition speaks the level of operational and engineering talent that the Archer team has built in-house,” they added.
With the transition flight completed, the Midnight aircraft is in the final phase towards Type Certification, with piloted flight testing set to begin by the end of 2024.
Archer plans to build six additional test aircraft, with three currently under construction, said analysts, which reiterated a Buy rating and a $9 price target on ACHR.