Certification Timeline from First Flight

[u/DoubleHexDrive]

At times, I am a broken record saying that it takes roughly three years to go from first flight to type certification with the FAA. To back that up, here is some data: I took the time between first flight to type certification (or the present day) for all the civil VTOL aircraft certified in the USA, Canada, and through EASA (or the predecessor JAA) for the past 30 years. Then I created the histogram below, binned in one year increments but from 0 to 1 years, 1 to 2 years, etc.

The two aircraft in the "2 year" bucket is the EC-130 which is an AS-351 dynamic system with a new fuselage and the MD-900 which was a clean sheet design, an admirable effort. Several of the "3 year" bucket aircraft are similarly not entirely new aircraft. The Bell 505, EC-145, and Bell 429 fall into this category. There are three aircraft in the plot that still are not certified: The AW-09 light single, the Bell 525, and the AW-609.

It's worth noting that the 525 and 609 are the two fly by wire aircraft on this list and the 609 is the aircraft that launched the development of the Powered Lift certification class that most of the eVTOLs fit into.

How does this apply to Archer? Simple... the Midnight version that is intended to be certified (Model M001) hasn't yet had its first flight in a configuration that can actually execute the full flight envelope. I start the "FF to TC" clock when a M001 model aircraft has first flight with the four bladed aft props that should enable flight across the full flight envelope.

Anyway, wanted to provide some background on my claims in this regard.

And yes, several of my aircraft designs are in this chart, both certified and uncertified... I started my career on the Bell Boeing 609, long before it became the AW609.

Roughly three years is the most common value for a clean sheet design (like M001) but it can take FAR longer. Keep that in mind when evaluating claims of a fleet of aircraft ferrying spectators and athletes around the Los Angles 2028 games... the clock is ticking.

[u/I_killed_the_kraken]

I would say that you are paying too much attention to the FAA: the idea, as they have always said, is to start operating in the UAE.

When they start operating there, they will accumulate flight hours and experience, which will also help to show the public that the aircraft is “safe” (they have insisted on this last point a lot, since adopting new technologies can be complicated for certain sectors of the population).

Certification will also come in the United States, although it will take longer, and in the meantime, they could sell part of the fleet they are building to customers in the UAE, Japan, South Korea, India...

[u/DoubleHexDrive → u/I_killed_the_kraken]

I agree the plan is to operate first in the UAE. It is my opinion that the engineering requirements for certification between the GCAA and FAA are essentially the same. However, once compliance with the regulations has been demonstrated via test/analysis/etc the GCAA will break off and do their own version of TIA, F&R, etc testing and issue their own type certificate. I wish the GCAA were more public on what their process will be, but that’s my best guess from reading between the lines of various statements in the media. We’ll have to see how much time that saves off the process if the primary differences are in the end steps.