Archer names Marubeni Aerospace as first customer for autonomous Halo tiltrotor

Today, Archer Aviation reported that Japan’s Marubeni Aerospace will be the launch customer for its newly unveiled Halo autonomous aircraft. Earlier this week, AGN reported Archer and Anduril were partnering to develop the commercial Halo and military Thunder variants.

Marubeni Aerospace announced as Archer’s Halo launch customer

In the announcement, Archer writes that the partnership with Marubeni will “focus on joint market research, use case identification and future introduction of Halo.”

Satoru Nakagawa, President and CEO, Marubeni Aerospace Corporation, said, “Currently, even in cargo transport operations that do not require onboard crew, flights are conducted with human pilots, absorbing the cost, scheduling constraints and human exposure that come with it.”

Nakagawa then explained that Halo, with its unmanned and autonomous capabilities, is being designed to address those challenges. He noted that Halo will come with excellent range, payload, capacity, and VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) capability.

He added that these capabilities will make Halo “a highly suitable solution” for Marubeni Aerospace. The announcement did not name any delivery timelines.

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Marubeni is an early customer for Vertical UK’s VX4

In 2021, Marubeni signed a conditional pre-order option for up to 200 Vertical VX4 air taxis and an MoU to explore bringing eVTOL services to Japan. In 2023, it made a cash pre-delivery payment to reserve early delivery slots for the first 25 aircraft out of the potential 200.

This made Marubeni Vertical Aerospace’s first Asian customer. VX4 is a piloted, four-passenger eVTOL air taxi with ranges of up to 100 miles.

In 2025, Marubeni stated, “Marubeni plans to conduct demonstration flights of the four-passenger eVTOL ‘VX4’ manufactured by the UK’s Vertical Aerospace…” Those demonstration flights did not take place due to the status of Vertical’s ongoing piloted flight testing in the UK.

Marubeni Aerospace has also conducted crewed demonstration flights in Japan using the eVTOL aircraft called HEXA (from LIFT) in 2025.

Archer described Marubeni as a specialized trading company in the aviation sector “representing major international aircraft and helicopter manufacturers.”

On its website, Marubeni describes itself as enhancing the value of aircraft assets through the aircraft and engine parts trading business and asset management business.

The company provides aftermarket parts from recycled aircraft. It also operates airport ground handling services at seven Japanese airports and is a contributor to Japan’s defence, space, and other sectors.

The new commercial Archer VTOL Halo

The two variants, the commercial Halo and military Thunder, will share the same airframe, hybrid powertrain, and core systems. They will come with a configurable payload applicable to a given mission set.

The autonomous tiltrotor aircraft bears resemblance to a miniaturized US Army MV-75 (formerly V-280 Valor) tiltrotor and builds on eight years of eVTOL development of Archer’s Midnight air taxi. It is a clean-sheet design.

Archer says, “At the core of the platform is innovation in hybrid-electric powertrain and optimum-speed tiltrotors.” It describes the aircraft as being designed for low-cost, high-volume production using commercial supply chains.

The autonomous Halo tiltrotor is designed to fill a growing need for commercial logistics to move heavy payloads long distances, fast, and cheaply, including destinations that lack a runway.

Thunder. The New Era of Attack Aviation. pic.twitter.com/cEGLBkwgRt

— Anduril Industries (@anduriltech) July 20, 2026

The commercial applications for Halo are described as including offshore energy (e.g., resupplying cargo runs to oil and wind platforms), time-sensitive freight, humanitarian and medical cargo, and maritime missions.

Featured Image: Archer Aviation