The Agility Prime program aims to test and develop electric VTOL vehicles to ‘enable resilient distributed logistics and sustained mobility.’
Archer Aviation Inc. announced on Aug. 15, 2024,the delivery of its first Midnight eVTOL (Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing) aircraft to the U.S. Air Force for evaluation purposes as a part of AFWERX’s $142 million Agility Prime contract. The delivery comes after the Department of Defense accepted Midnight’s military airworthiness assessment which allows AFWERX to conduct further testing.
AFWERX, the innovation arm of the Department of the Air Force and powered by the AFRL (Air Force Research Laboratory), launched the Agility Prime program in Apr. 2020. The objective is working with aerospace and defense companies to test and develop electric VTOL vehicles which “enable resilient distributed logistics and sustained mobility.”
Archer is slated to deliver a total of up to six Midnight aircraft to the Air Force under the Agility Prime contract with AFWERX, along with an eVTOL flight simulator. The Midnight was originally developed for urban transport.
This past month, we delivered the first Midnight aircraft to the United States Air Force.
The @usairforce often serves in places that don’t have roads, rails or even runways—making Midnight a strong potential asset for their deployment.
This delivery comes after the… pic.twitter.com/n2pMPEk1VF
— Archer (@ArcherAviation) August 15, 2024
Archer Aviation’s Midnight
The Midnight is a piloted, five seat (pilot and up to four passengers) aircraft designed to undertake rapid back-to-back flights of 20-50 miles with minimal charge time between sorties. Archer says the aircraft has a speed of up to 150 mph, while the payload capacity has been reported to be of 453 kg.
The V-tailed aircraft has 12 engines, with six on each wing arranged in a combination of three protruding from the wing’s leading edge and the three on the trailing edge. The engines in the back are equipped with two blade propellers and are in a fixed upwards position.
The engines in the front are equipped with five blade propellers and can be tilted for transitioning from VTOL operations to forward flight. This way, tilting forward the engines after take-off, the aircraft can fly at higher speed. Midnight has a fixed tricycle landing gear, with the rear wheels supported by long arms stretching from the sides of the tail boom.
Midnight’s vertical takeoff and landing capabilities, proprietary electric powertrain and low noise profile make it “well-suited for military aviation operations,” says Archer. The company also added that “Midnight is expected to provide a much safer, cost-effective and quieter alternative to existing internal combustion engine options.”
As mentioned, the delivery comes after the DoD accepted Midnight’s military airworthiness assessment, which validated its readiness for flight testing by AFWERX. This paves the way for AFWERX to “conduct government-directed testing of the aircraft for the U.S. Air Force and validate operational and military-specific mission concepts.”
Air Force, Archer Collaboration
According to Archer, the eVTOL is expected to provide a safer, cost-effective and quieter alternative to existing internal combustion engine options, while promising to retain the enhanced “rapid response, agility and operational effectiveness across a wide range of missions.”
Archer’s Midnight acquisition is in line with Agility Prime’s route to acquire pre-existing “dual use vertical lift” platforms for “rapid and affordable fielding” that offer “increased automation and Simplified Vehicle Operations” and “field operationally relevant mobility” for “over 60 potential use cases.” The civilian and military applications include disaster relief, firefighting, search and rescue, humanitarian aid efforts, medical evacuation, logistics support, and personnel movement.
A team of USAF personnel worked alongside Archer’s flight test team to ramp up operations with Midnight at the company’s flight test facility in Salinas, California. The teams executed simulated medical evacuation, cargo, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance flights.
“Archer’s Midnight aircraft has the potential to significantly enhance our operational capabilities,” said Col. Elliott Leigh, AFWERX Director and Chief Commercialization Officer for the Department of the Air Force.
Other eVTOL Acquisitions by USAF
AFWERX’s program involves several other aerospace firms as a part of Agility Prime. In Sep. 2023, Joby Aviation delivered its experimental air taxi to Edwards Air Force Base, California. This is the first of up to nine eVTOL aircraft that Joby intends to supply to the Air Force.
Joby’s eVTOL air taxi was sling-loaded by helicopter to Edwards AFB, as the experimental aircraft did not have FAA authorization to fly across California. The certification by the FAA is not expected to arrive until 2025.
On Jul. 31, 2024, AFWERX engineers and pilots also extensively evaluated Pivotal’s BlackFly eVTOL along with other aircraft Springfield-Beckley Airport, Ohio, as a part of Agility Prime. The effort assessed “the aircraft and their supporting ecosystem through an operational leasing initiative.”
The AFRL release quoted Josh Lane, AFWERX flight test engineer: “We’re also looking at the infrastructure, including electric charging systems like the DANNAR battery energy storage system and the portable chargers provided by the original equipment manufacturers.”
Prior to that, from Dec. 13 to 17, 2021, Capt. Terrence McKenna, an Air Force Reserve pilot with the 370th Flight Test Squadron and Test and Experimentation Lead for AFWERX Agility Prime, participated in remote pilot in control (rPIC) training on the Heaviside aircraft at the Kitty Hawk Corporation’s facility in Palo Alto, California.
The training culminated in the first government remote piloted flight of an eVTOL aircraft when he successfully flew the Heaviside via the Buddy Box System. By the end of the day, McKenna had conducted 3 successful flights, focusing on vertical maneuvers, takeoff and landing, manipulation on all axes, auto-hover, and manual flight.
The Agility Prime is similar to the U.S. Navy’s VTOL testing program which has been ongoing since 2021 as a part of the JITD (Just In-Time Delivery) project, which also saw drones being flown off flight decks of warships during RIMPAC 2024. This is meant to evaluate their ability to undertake small and medium-sized cargo missions between ships and unburden the bigger rotary wing helicopters.
JITD is a concept validation of sorts, with the systems not actually being procured, but informing future system and performance requirements for cargo drones which would later be stipulated in RFI/RFPs (Request for Information/Request for Proposals). Agility Prime also appears to have a similar goal and it remains to be seen if the Midnight and Joby Aviation’s experimental air taxis will be used in larger exercises.
