Bringing urban air mobility one step closer to a everyday reality.
Archer Aviation
Archer Aviation is a Palo Alto–based urban air mobility company on a mission to make electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft a part of everyday life for city commuters. In partnership with United Airlines, Archer announced its first commercial electric air taxi route—connecting Downtown Manhattan and Newark Liberty International Airport—set to launch in 2025. To scale production, Archer has also joined forces with Stallantis to manufacture its flagship eVTOL, Midnight.
Founded in 2018 by Brett Adcock and Adam Goldstein, Archer was born from a vision to reimagine urban transportation. While VTOLs have traditionally served military purposes—such as those developed by Bell—Archer aims to bring the benefits of vertical flight to everyday people through sustainable, electric-powered vehicles designed for the urban landscape.
Design an exciting flightworthy 2 seater demonstrator/experimental eVTOL that will help carve a path towards FAA certification.
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Exterior and interior industrial design of the MAKER eVTOL.
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Two 1:1 scale demonstrator vehicles for testing and verification.
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＞ Provided successful demonstration rides to Uber and Toyota executives on autonomous rides in Texas.
＞ Hardened partnerships and plan commits from Uber and Toyota
＞ Built internal muscles on corss functional development processes.
Frank Stephenson, Brett Adcock, Adam Goldstein, Geoffrey Bower, Tom Muniz, Giovanni Droandi, Teague Design and many more.
Summer 2021
Archer’s first experimental eVTOL, paving the path toward FAA certification.
Bringing the excitement of electric urban air mobility to the public meant reimagining how aircraft are built and sparking enthusiasm for a rapidly emerging industry.
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Unveiling the MAKER eVTOL—Archer’s bold step into the future of Urban Air Mobility.
In June 2021, Archer unveiled the MAKER in Los Angeles, marking the start of a new era in electric urban air mobility. The experimental aircraft proved the feasibility and appeal of eVTOL technology, paving the way for its four-passenger successor, Midnight.
Supercar Blondie’s Alex shares her first impressions of the MAKER eVTOL as she introduces it to the world during its exciting debut in LA 2021 along with Brett and Adam.
MAKER experimental eVTOL proved that the future of Urban Air Mobility can be desirable, feasible and most importantly viable through the demonstration of full transition flight.
Some snapshots for a 2 year zero to one sprint
During COVID, we used Gravity Sketch with Oculus to create and share full-scale 3D sketches, giving us an approachable way to explore scale, layout, and collaborate in real time.
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As we designed the interior, we explored what would be most useful on the infotainment screen, creating a Figma prototype to bring those ideas to life.
Designing the interior was a wide exploration. We aligned on a general direction through mood and inspiration boards, then quickly built on that path by generating a range of ideas.
We explored multiple livery concepts—this is one of the options we considered.
Visually storytelling something unseen before.
In the winter of 2018, Brett and Adam shared their vision of creating an eVTOL unlike anything the world had seen. Our collaboration began with storytelling—imagining what this future could look like—and helped inspire the seed funding that launched Archer’s founding team.
