Inside Archer’s decision to pursue a hybrid-electric uncrewed aircraft
Archer Aviation’s expansion beyond urban air mobility began with a question from defence technology company Anduril: could the technology developed for the Midnight air taxi form the basis of a much longer-range autonomous aircraft?
Two years later, that conversation has produced a new dual-use VTOL platform with two identities. Thunder is the defence version unveiled by Anduril at the Farnborough International Airshow, while Halo is being developed by Archer for commercial cargo and logistics missions.
Speaking to Aerospace Global News at Farnborough, Archer chief technology officer Tom Muniz explained that the two should not be seen as separate aircraft.
“The way to think about it is one aircraft, and essentially the names are just whether it’s the civil variant or the defence variant,” he said.
Both share the same airframe, series hybrid-electric powertrain and core systems. Mission equipment and payloads will then determine whether the aircraft operates as Thunder or Halo.
Midnight technology provides the foundation
Archer has spent approximately eight years developing electric propulsion, battery and manufacturing technology for its commercial aircraft programme.
As Midnight moved further into flight testing and certification, engineering capacity became available to consider how those technologies could support another class of aircraft.
“Some of our designers, some of the engineers that work for me, freed up, and so we had a little bandwidth to think about, ‘What’s next?’” Muniz explained.
Anduril was exploring an emerging requirement for an autonomous VTOL aircraft offering substantially greater range than current electric designs. After assessing both new and traditional aerospace manufacturers, it selected Archer as its development partner.
The resulting clean-sheet platform combines wingborne cruise with two optimum-speed tiltrotors. Unlike Midnight’s all-electric powertrain, it uses a series hybrid system in which jet fuel generates electricity that is distributed to the aircraft’s propulsion system.
This retains some of the benefits of distributed electric propulsion while addressing the range and endurance limitations associated with battery-only aircraft.
Archer has not yet published targeted figures for the platform’s speed, range or payload capacity.
Defence offers a faster path into service
Anduril will install its mission systems and payloads to turn the core aircraft into Thunder, an autonomous attack platform intended to operate alongside crewed attack and assault aircraft.
Muniz said beginning with a defence application gives Archer a more efficient route for introducing the hybrid-electric system and proving its capabilities in operational use.
“Having an initial defence application gives us a more efficient path to get some new technology into market,” he said.
The technology could subsequently be incorporated into later versions of the platform or used elsewhere in Archer’s product portfolio.
Full-scale surrogate aircraft have already completed multiple test flights, while the first flight of the new platform is planned for 2027.
For the commercial market, Halo is being positioned for offshore energy support, freight, maritime operations and humanitarian or medical cargo missions. Japan’s Marubeni Aerospace Corporation has been named as its first strategic launch partner, although the partnership does not represent an aircraft order.
Midnight remains Archer’s first priority
Despite its expansion into hybrid propulsion, autonomous cargo operations and defence, Midnight remains Archer’s first aircraft intended to enter commercial service.
The company has been flying Midnight since 2023 and is continuing its company-led test programme ahead of Type Inspection Authorisation flight testing with the US Federal Aviation Administration.
Muniz said the certification programme was progressing well but declined to attach a firm date to its completion.
“It’s always so hard to talk about timeframes and certification,” he said. “Our job is to make safe aircraft, and we’re really closely partnered with regulators, but it’s really up to them to decide when we actually get the ticket.”
Halo and Thunder therefore represent Archer’s next technological step, but Midnight remains the aircraft through which the company must first demonstrate that it can take an advanced VTOL design through certification and into commercial operation.
