The Maker is an eVTOL aircraft, meaning it's capable of electric vertical take-off and landing. Vertical take-off like a helicopter means that it doesn't need a runway and can be launched from space-efficient helipads. Once in the air, the Maker transitions to fixed-wing flight like an airplane, which is both quieter and more energy efficient for cruising at up to 150 mph.
Along the craft's 40-foot wingspan, you'll find a total of 12 rotors -- six large, five-bladed props that handle the bulk of propulsion and six smaller, two-blade rotors that appear to only be used during hovering and the transitional phase to cruising. By using full-electric motors and multiple small props with lower "tip speed" than a single, large rotor, Archer claims that the Maker is 100 times quieter than a conventional heli, humming along at around 45 dB when cruising at around 2,000 feet.
The two-passenger Maker should be fairly lightweight. Tipping the scales at around 3,300 pounds, it is about 700 pounds less than a 2020 Tesla Model 3, which has the same size battery, but also still about 1,000 pounds more than a conventional light aircraft of the same size.
A Cessna 172 can't land on a helipad in the middle of a city, though, which is why the Maker will see use. As an urban air mobility vehicle with just 60 miles of cruising range, Archer envisions the Maker serving as an air taxi that shuttles VIPs from, say, San Francisco Airport to San Jose in just 17 minutes, bypassing up to two hours of traffic on the ground during rush hour. A trip from Manhattan to JFK will only take 7 minutes. TO READ MORE, CLICK HERE...
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