A FLYING taxi could cut your commute from an hour to just minutes.
That’s the promise from Archer, the company behind the 150mph Midnight “air taxi”.
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It’s one of a growing number of flying vehicles designed to carry passengers on short trips over cities.
The vision is to skip traffic – slashing journey times from the sky, and easing congestion on the roads.
Midnight is built to carry a pilot, as well as four passengers and their carry-on luggage.
“Urban mobility is about to be taken to a whole new dimension,” Archer explained.
“Designed to conduct rapid back-to-back flights of 20-50 miles with minimal charge time in between.
“Archer is focused on delivering the future of what air travel can be: safe, sustainable, and low noise.”
The Midnight air taxi is built to hit speeds of up to 150mph.
And it says that this “can turn hour-long ground commutes into minutes in the air”.
The craft is powered by six independent battery packs – each supporting a pair of custom electric engines.
These are lithium-ion batteries – a lot like the ones found in your smartphone or laptop at home.
But Archer says its battery system is advanced enough that it can be charged “in minutes”.
This should allow the air taxi to be charged up rapidly between flights.
There’s also an added benefit that Midnight can keep flying if something goes wrong.
“Our Midnight aircraft has 12 electric engines and 6 independent battery packs,” Archer explained.
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“Each of Midnight’s battery packs power a set of forward and aft motors diagonally opposite each other.
“This design means it is able to safely complete a flight if any engine or battery pack shuts down at any point of the flight.”
The company says that the focus will be travel “in and around cities” across the world.
If you’ve ever heard a helicopter passing overhead, the idea of a fleet of air taxis might sound terrible.
WHERE WILL MIDNIGHT TAKE OFF FIRST?
Here are the current plans, according to Archer…
Archer has announced plans and partnerships with leading brands to launch its air taxi operations in the United Arab Emirates, India and Korea.
UAE
Abu Dhabi Investment Office, Falcon Aviation & Air Chateau
India
InterGlobe, owner of IndiGo which is India’s largest airline
Korea
KakaoMobility, the “Uber of Korea” which has over 30 million users
But Archer is convinced that its final Midnight version will be very quiet.
In fact, it claims you’ll hardly be able to hear one passing overhead.
“With fully-electric propulsion and smaller rotors than helicopters, our aircraft are up to 100X quieter than a helicopter when flying at cruising altitudes,” Archer said.
“Making them virtually inaudible from the streets below,” the company added.
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