Archer Aviation today announced an agreement to supply Anduril Industries and EDGE Group with Archer’s dual use electric powertrain technology to accelerate the development and scaled production of Anduril’s recently unveiled Omen Autonomous Air Vehicle system. The UAE has committed to an initial acquisition of 50 Omen systems, creating an established demand signal for the Omen system and Archer’s powertrain technology, according to an Archer press release. The agreement marks the first time Archer will make its proprietary, advanced powertrain technology, in use on its Midnight eVTOL aircraft, available for use by a third party, introducing a new revenue stream
“Archer has invested heavily in developing a proprietary, best-in-class electric powertrain that is highly optimized for a range of commercial and defence aviation use-cases,” said the company. “This expansion of Archer’s business lines to supply electric powertrains for defence applications builds on Archer’s accumulated experience in battery and electric engine technologies and opens a new, high upside revenue stream for the company.
“While most see our Midnight eVTOL as an aircraft, we view Midnight as a platform that plays host to a wide range of new and exciting aerospace technologies that will be leveraged way beyond our own aircraft. Our powertrain deal with Anduril is the first of what we expect to be many examples of this,” said Adam Goldstein, founder and CEO of Archer. “For almost a year, we have worked closely with Anduril’s team as we advance our hybrid-electric aircraft project. As we’ve familiarized ourselves with each other’s technology, new and interesting opportunities to collaborate beyond the scope of the initial hybrid aircraft project have been uncovered. We could not be more excited to expand the scope of our partnership with Anduril as we open up a new revenue stream for Archer’s business as a powertrain supplier for next-generation electric aircraft.”
Shane Arnott, Anduril’s SVP of Engineering, commented, “We’ve been working on Omen for more than five years. By combining the Archer team’s expertise in powertrain technology with a little bit of Anduril magic, we’ve been able to mature our propulsion solution to achieve the ranges, speeds, and payload capacity we need to make Omen operationally relevant for a variety of dual-use mission sets. The maturity and reliability of Archer’s powertrain platform de-risks our plans to deliver a production variant of Omen to customers at scale.”
Archer has recently been active in making other international deals tied to its flagship Midnight eVTOL, announcing an exclusive agreement with Korean Air to commercialize AAM technology across multiple markets and use cases, said the company. In Japan, both Osaka and Tokyo have selected Archer and its local partner to lead AAM deployments in those cities.
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https://news.archer.com/archer-to-supply-its-proprietary-electric-powertrain-to-third-parties-starting-with-anduril-and-edge-group-for-their-recently-announced-omen-autonomous-air-vehicle