Archer Aviation Aims for 2028 LA Olympics Air Taxi Certification, Unveils Defense Craft

Archer Aviation CEO Adam Goldstein said the company is laser-focused on getting its air taxis certified and flying by the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

"It's always been an ambitious goal," he told CNBC's Phil LeBeau on Monday at the Farnborough Air Show in the U.K. "It's still an ambitious goal, but we're certainly going to try our hardest to get there."

Archer on Monday unveiled its Thunder autonomous vertical takeoff and landing defense craft with Anduril, designed to accompany crewed aircraft and helicopters. The companies first joined forces in 2024.

Shares rallied nearly 20%.

Archer is widely known for creating electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft aimed at cutting emissions and traffic in crowded urban areas. However, the technology has faced a series of regulatory and infrastructure hurdles that have pushed back certification timelines.

In recent months, Archer and its peers have benefitted from President Donald Trump's latest eVTOL pilot program aimed at accelerating deployment, with testing across 26 states.

"This is really critical to gaining the trust of the public and the trust of the regulators that will ultimately lead to our certification," Goldstein told CNBC. "That step is going to be hugely critical in order to allow us to meet those timelines."

Archer and its peers have also steadily expanded their defense portfolios as the U.S. military invests in new technology on the battlefield and adds more artificial intelligence tools.

Goldstein called defense applications a "huge market" for Archer amid rising geopolitical tensions abroad. The aircraft also doesn't require the same certification process necessary for commercial use cases, he added.

"The applications we can bring in the defense world are quite impressive and very much needed for the warfighter," he said.