Archer Aviation announced Halo, the commercial variant of a dual-use autonomous vertical takeoff and landing aircraft platform jointly developed with Anduril. Anduril unveiled the platform’s defense variant, called Thunder, earlier this week at the Farnborough International Airshow. The two variants share the same airframe, hybrid powertrain, and core systems, with payload configurations adjustable depending on mission requirements.
The platform builds on eight years of electric vertical takeoff and landing development and flight testing by Archer, combining a series hybrid-electric powertrain with dual tiltrotors that vary rotor RPM to maintain efficiency across flight conditions, reducing power demand, fuel burn, and noise. The aircraft’s range supports global self-deployment, or alternatively can be packed into a standard shipping container for transport by air, road, rail, or sea.
Archer said the platform is designed for low-cost, high-volume production, leveraging commercial supply chains to enable broad deployment across both commercial and defense markets.
Archer named Marubeni Aerospace Corporation, a subsidiary of Marubeni Corporation’s aerospace and mobility arm, as a strategic launch partner for Halo, with the partnership focused on joint market research, use case identification, and future introduction of the aircraft.
Archer said it expects to announce additional partners this year, and identified offshore energy resupply, heavy freight transport, humanitarian and medical cargo delivery, and maritime operations as target commercial applications.
KEY QUOTES:
“Over the past eight years we’ve engineered, tested and scaled the technology this platform is built on. The powertrain, the batteries, the motors, the manufacturing. We partnered with Anduril to take all of that knowledge and build something new: a clean-sheet aircraft in a completely different class of range, speed and payload. I believe this is the most sophisticated vertical lift aircraft platform ever developed, it’s exactly what our customers need.”
Adam Goldstein, Founder and CEO, Archer
“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. Halo’s unmanned, autonomous flight capabilities can address these challenges, and combined with its excellent range, payload capacity and VTOL capability, make it a highly suitable solution that we are pleased to introduce and support for our customers as a first strategic partner.”
Satoru Nakagawa, President and CEO, Marubeni Aerospace Corporation
