Dive Brief:
- Archer Aviation announced plans June 20 for an air mobility network across the San Francisco Bay Area, including a waterfront terminal combining a vertiport for electric takeoff and landing aircraft and an electric ferry service.
- A second air taxi company, Joby Aviation, said in a June 4 press release that it acquired the autonomy division of Xwing, a technology developer for ground-supervised uncrewed aircraft without onboard pilots.
- These and other actions to advance urban air mobility from these two major air taxi firms come as the Federal Aviation Administration anticipates the industry maturing, resulting in increasing use of remotely-piloted and fully autonomous aircraft in the U.S.
Dive Insight:
Both Archer and Joby have been certified by the FAA to operate commuter and on-demand flights under Part 135 of the Code of Federal Regulations. As the industry moves toward expected commercial flights beginning in 2025, the companies are entering agreements with infrastructure and technology providers or making key acquisitions.
In San Francisco, Archer Aviation signed a memorandum of agreement with Kilroy Realty, a U.S. landlord and real estate developer, to explore opportunities to build a vertiport at the Kilroy Oyster Point development, a mixed-use campus in South San Francisco. The companies suggest the vertiport would offer flights to San Jose, Oakland, Livermore and Napa, California. The MOU also includes the development of the waterfront hub, which will be powered by renewable energy, according to the press release. Archer said its goal is to replace 60- to 90-minute car commutes with 10- to 20-minute electric air taxi flights.
Among its other U.S. plans, Archer announced the signing of an MOU with Signature Aviation on June 17, giving it access to more than 200 private airport terminals. The agreement identifies opportunities to launch air taxi operations serving United Airlines hubs at Newark Liberty International and Chicago O’Hare airports as early as the end of 2025.
Archer competitor Joby said its acquisition of Xwing complements the company’s 2021 acquisition of Inras, an Austrian company developing high-performance radar sensor technology. Xwing has been flying autonomous aircraft since 2020, according to a press release, and it has completed 250 fully autonomous flights to date. JoeBen Bevirt, Joby founder and CEO, said in a statement that “a future generation of autonomous aircraft will play an important part in unlocking our vision of making clean and affordable aerial mobility as accessible as possible.”
Joby announced on June 20 it has received FAA authorization for a suite of software it has developed, ElevateOS, that includes apps for pilots, operations and schedule management along with a rider app to connect passengers with available aircraft and landing sites.
“Urban air mobility is going to happen at the heart of cities,” said Gaël Le Bris, vice president, aviation planning, and senior technical principal at the engineering and consulting firm WSP USA, in an interview last year with Smart Cities Dive. He emphasized the importance of leveraging the emerging technology to benefit users of ground transportation along with including opportunities for local small businesses and for training a new workforce to serve the industry.
