00:00Archer, designing and developing electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, EVTOLs, for use in urban air mobility networks.
00:07When are Carol and I going to take one of these to Newark Airport?
00:10We're flying out tomorrow.
00:11We're both taking cabs.
00:14Well, it's great to be here.
00:16The industry is actually, you know, as you said, it's been around for a while and it's getting pretty mature.
00:21So the good news is that in June of this year, President Trump issued an executive order that'll mandate really the speed of these being brought to market.
00:31So by next June, you should expect to be seeing these aircrafts flying in and around the big urban cities.
00:37Five cities are getting announced.
00:39They'll be announced in January.
00:40It will be flying in June.
00:41And so that's when you'll start to see them flying around in the U.S.
00:44Flying in June without passengers?
00:47They'll start piloted with just no passengers.
00:50And the goal is to ramp operations there through the certification process.
00:53So go back to my original question, which is really when we will be using these as easily as we can hail a cab using Uber or Lyft?
01:01Yeah, it's hard to say.
01:02It's really, you know, the company's job to build the safe airplanes and then the FAA's job to certify.
01:08So our hope is soon after that period of time when we're showing that these aircrafts are safe, we're showing that there's a really good consumer experience.
01:14And overall, we've gotten a lot of, you know, buy-in from community acceptance.
01:18Are you having active conversations with the FAA right now?
01:23Yes.
01:23So there's constantly active conversations.
01:26Of course, the government shutdown, you know, kind of created some slowdowns with that.
01:30But the conversations continue.
01:32And it's been ongoing for a very long time.
01:35We have longstanding relationships there.
01:36And the programs are very, very well established.
01:39This is a priority of the administration.
01:41That's what the executive order in June was all about.
01:44And so this is one of those programs that I think does get a lot more attention.
01:48We kind of punch above our weight as an industry.
01:51And so, you know, they've been very good to us so far.
01:53So what is your definition, Adam, of commercial operations?
02:04We have a civil business, which is moving around in a defense side of the business.
02:09On the civil side of the business, we have a two-pronged approach.
02:11There's an international strategy and a domestic strategy.
02:15On the international side, we've been working very closely with the UAE and the UAE government.
02:21Specifically, the largest helicopter operator in the Middle East is called Abu Dhabi Aviation,
02:25which we've partnered with and has acquired aircraft.
02:28So we've already started to receive dollars from that.
02:31We'll start to recognize revenue in the first quarter of next year.
02:34And so that's when you'll start to see some of those numbers come in.
02:36It'll be very small, though, to start.
02:38And then we'll ramp that over time.
02:39On the defense side of things, the contracts have to be announced.
02:43And so that still hasn't happened yet.
02:44There's a lot of talk.
02:45And I think the programs are starting to firm up.
02:48And there's a lot of excitement around new, what they call autonomous and attributable aircraft.
02:52But those programs have yet to be announced.
02:54We're hopeful that those will be announced soon.
02:56So my understanding, too, going back to the stuff you're doing in Abu Dhabi.
02:59So that launch was the first, correct, of your company's launch edition program and was supposed to be kind of the playbook for Ethiopian airlines and in Indonesia.
03:12So lessons learned so far.
03:15And how is it, among those lessons being learned, changing the future rollout?
03:21Yeah, those are great questions.
03:23Launching in the UAE or really just the broader GCC has provided a lot of lessons around weather.
03:31And so, of course, it's very hot there.
03:33There's a lot of kind of harsh conditions with a lot of sand in the air.
03:37So we've learned a lot about how to keep these aircrafts cool and very, very hot weather, not just the interiors for consumers, but actually like the safety of the aircraft.
03:46So that testing, I think, has been hugely helpful.
03:48And so you start in one of the harsher environments.
03:50You can work our way to some of the more mild environments like here in California.
03:54And so that's provided a lot of the sort of base layer lessons for operating in really difficult conditions.
03:59But the goal is really to just continue to get reps, learn, figure out how these aircrafts will get to market.
04:06The good news is they're all based around safety.
04:08And so multiple sets of propellers providing multiple sets of redundancy.
04:13And so I think we can deliver a really high-quality, safe product.
04:16From an infrastructure perspective, Carol mentioned that we have to have infrastructure in the right place.
04:21I'm wondering if there are cities in the U.S. that work right now or do not work for this type of technology.
04:26Yeah, well, I've had my sights set on Los Angeles as sort of the best city, I think, in the U.S. for this platform.
04:35There's so much traffic in Los Angeles.
04:38There are over 5 million daily trips that take greater than an hour by car going less than 20 miles in Los Angeles.
04:46So an incredible city to offer this type of platform.
04:49So last year, we announced the L.A. network, which really starts to show the different points of interest.
04:55So partnerships with SoFi Stadium, with Woodland Hills, with USC Coliseum.
05:01So places where there already is existing infrastructure, L.A. ports that are there.
05:04We'll start building that network up.
05:06Of course, we have the Olympics coming in Los Angeles in 2028, where we're beginning to be increasing the infrastructure that gets built in and around the games.
05:13And Archer was announced as the exclusive air taxi provider for that event.
05:18So Los Angeles is a perfect city to go launch this.
05:20But, of course, there's other great cities like New York, Miami, and San Francisco that I think will be also a great place for us to launch.
05:27But pretty much anywhere they use helicopters will be great for this product.
05:30So exclusive air taxi partner for the Olympics out in Los Angeles.
05:36So that means you're going to actually be flying folks around?
05:38That is certainly the goal.
05:40So the goal is to move VIPs, dignitaries, fans in and around the games.
05:46We have been partnering very closely with L.A. 28 to do that.
05:49I'm confident in that goal we'll be able to get there.
05:52It's a super exciting time for the industry.
05:54That's actually a goal that was set out by the FAA back in 2022.
05:58So they coined the term Innovate 28, which was the first city where you'll see these aircrafts used in mass will be at the L.A. 28 game.
06:06So that's an alignment that, you know, the goals were put out there a while ago, and we hope to deliver against that.
06:11Do you feel at all that investors, though, are feeling a little bit of fatigue from kind of the repeated delays in the start of revenue generating passenger flights?
06:19I mean, the stock's up about 7 percent year a day, but you look at the chart over the last year.
06:23It's like a rough EKG.
06:26It's a little tricky.
06:27So I'm just wondering, are you feeling like investors?
06:30I think it was back in 2021 that you guys slated the launch of a taxi launch service in Miami and L.A. by 2024.
06:37So I get it.
06:38You want to get it right.
06:39You want it to be safe.
06:39But do you feel like your investors are getting a little antsy?
06:42Just got about 30 seconds.
06:43Then we take a break and come back and talk a little bit more.
06:47I would say it's actually quite the contrary.
06:49And that's not just an Archer statement.
06:51I think that's an industry statement.
06:52So one of our peers and one of my good friends, Kyle Clark, is IPO-ing his company called Beta here.
06:59I think it's supposed to price this week.
07:01And from what I've heard is the thing is massively oversubscribed.
07:04There's tons of demand.
07:05So I think there is a ton of interest in the eBTOL space.
07:08I think the investors are very excited about the progress that we have.
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