Hollywood movies have featured flying taxis for decades, but it wasn’t until this month that a Silicon Valley company invested in a real-world hub for futuristic flying machines in Los Angeles.
Archer Aviation is building electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, or eVTOL, to shuttle small groups over dense urban areas. The company is buying control of the Hawthorne Municipal Airport for more than $125 million. That’s more than four times the budget of the original “Blade Runner.”
“We’ve always viewed Los Angeles as a cornerstone market for launch of air taxis, both in the U.S. and globally,” said Eric Lentell, chief strategy officer at Archer, in an interview.
“We were already looking at infrastructure in and around L.A., so when the airport became an option, we knew we had to pounce on it,” he said.
The acquisition is Archer’s latest move in the race to make air travel more local and affordable. California has become a hotbed for developing the technology. Optimists hope that combining the latest electric vehicle and battery tech with artificial intelligence can finally enable commuters to use flying cars like Ubers.
San José’s Archer and Joby Aviation in Santa Cruz are in competition among other Californian companies, including Mountain View-based Wisk Aero and Irvine’s Supernal. Companies in China and Europe are in the race as well.
The aircraft blend technology from airplanes and helicopters and will eventually be integrated into existing transportation systems, according to leaders in the industry.
Los Angeles’s urban sprawl and congested freeways make it a prime test market for air taxis, industry insiders say. The city’s wealthy populace could also be among the first to pay for the service.
Archer has taken other steps to bring its product to the region, including partnering with the Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment Commission and promising to transport athletes and VIPs during the 2028 Olympic Games. The company will be an official host city supporter for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Last year, Joby showcased a model of its eVTOL aircraft at the Grove in Los Angeles, where shoppers were able to look at the technology up close and sit inside the aircraft.
“California, in some ways, was the birthplace of the idea for this new wave of mobility,” Eric Allison, Joby’s chief product officer, said in an interview. “We’re really focused on completing this type of certification and getting our aircraft into commercial service as fast as possible.”
Joby is also laying the groundwork for an air taxi service in Dubai. This month, it completed the first point-to-point air taxi flight in the United Arab Emirates and announced plans for three new vertiports in the area. The vertiports, which are takeoff and landing spaces for VTOL aircraft, will be built at the American University of Dubai, the Dubai Mall and the Atlantis the Royal resort.
Allison didn’t provide a timeline for launching in California. He said the company is working toward reaching an important certification milestone with the Federal Aviation Administration early next year.
Real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield is scouting locations in L.A. and elsewhere for companies that manage the vertiports, such as Vertiports by Atlantic.
“Basically, we’re trying to find the bus stops for flying taxis,” Cushman’s commercial property broker Mike Condon Jr. said. “This is George Jetson-esque. This is the future here, now.”
Critics and community advocates are already pushing back with worries about noise, safety and affordability.
In May 2023, the Department of Transportation published a request for information seeking public input on a national strategy to regulate an emerging industry the FAA calls Advanced Air Mobility.
The Aviation-Impacted Communities Alliance, a national advocacy group focused on aircraft, submitted a comment through the Federal Register in August 2023 urging stricter oversight.
Darlene Yaplee, president and co-founder of the Alliance, said there are too many unknowns surrounding eVTOL aircraft.
“There’s great concern about safety and security with these flying overhead and how that’s going to be managed,” she said.
Critics dispute air taxi company claims that their services could ease congestion as passengers will still have to take a car to and from the takeoff and landing points.
Meanwhile, the technology and regulatory guidelines are still being developed. Air taxi makers face the challenge of building a battery powerful enough to support back-to-back flights with minimal charging time. It also takes years to get the necessary FAA approvals to operate a commercial air travel service.
In response to the public’s concerns, Allison said the electric aircraft are much quieter than regular helicopters and planes and Joby has done extensive work on limiting noise pollution.
“Regardless of where our aircraft is flying, we don’t want it to disturb communities,” he said. “It’s nearly silent when it flies over an urban environment because it’s below the background noise.”
Archer says safety is a top priority, and its aircraft are designed with redundancy across critical systems to prevent incidents.
Wisk Aero, which is working on a four-passenger air taxi, has its own solution to safety. Its aircraft will be fully autonomous, eliminating the possibility of human error, said Dan Dalton, Wisk’s vice president of global partnerships.
“We have got to make sure that this aircraft meets all of the highest levels of safety standards that exist in aviation today, because we think that’s the right way to introduce an autonomous air taxi,” Dalton said in an interview.
Archer’s shares took a hit after it announced its plans to buy the Hawthorne airport, amid investor concern about when that investment will generate revenue. Archer shares have nosedived more than 25% so far this year, while Joby shares are up more than 60%.
Archer’s Lentell is confident the public will embrace the company’s eVTOL aircraft dubbed Midnight, which carries a pilot, four passengers and carry-on luggage.
He said he expects the company to scale its product for mass use within the next 10 to 15 years. Midnight could begin transporting a select number of priority customers as soon as the Olympics.
The company plans to use the Hawthorne airport for testing its aircraft and later as an air taxi hub. Lentell said Archer will also work on building AI-powered tech there.
The airport, which is also host to a manufacturing facility for Elon Musk’s company SpaceX and was the site of a test tunnel built by the Boring Co., gives Archer a stake in Los Angeles.
Lentell said he envisions the property eventually serving as a base for multiple air taxi companies, once several have come to scale.
“I think we can deliver a product that is low noise and competitively priced,” Lentell said. “I think the demand will likely be insatiable.”
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