DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A truck carrying iron rods and extra passengers overturned on a major highway early Monday in central Bangladesh, leaving at least 15 people dead and 10 others injured, police said.
The crash happened after the driver lost control around 5 a.m. at Soratoil area in Tangail district, 83 kilometers (52 miles) northwest of the nation's capital, Dhaka, said local police chief Fuad Hossain.
Hossain said the truck was carrying hitchhiking passengers and travelling from Dhaka to the northern region as vacationers began traveling ahead of the Islamic festival Eid al-Adha on Thursday. The truck overturned and killed them at the scene, he said.
The official said most of the passengers were day laborers and were traveling to join their families for the festival.
Witnesses told TV stations that they rushed to the scene after hearing noise and started rescuing passengers who got trapped.
Road accidents kill thousands every year in the nation of more than 170 million people because of lax oversight of traffic rules, bad road conditions and unskilled driving.
People look on after a truck carrying iron rods and extra passengers overturned on a highway in central district of Tangail, Bangladesh, Monday, May 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Sohel Talukder)
FARNBOROUGH, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 22, 2026--
Archer Aviation (NYSE: ACHR) today announced Halo, the commercial variant of a jointly-developed dual-use platform built to serve both defense and commercial applications. Anduril unveiled Thunder, the defense variant of the platform, on Monday at the Farnborough International Airshow. The two variants share the same airframe, hybrid powertrain and core systems, with configurable payload depending on mission requirements.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260722091110/en/
Archer Technology Stack
This new dual-use autonomous VTOL aircraft platform, highlighted by its Halo (commercial) and Thunder (defense) variants, builds on eight years of eVTOL development and flight testing by Archer. It features a clean-sheet design, bringing the commercial VTOL sector's rapid innovation in electric propulsion and rotor design directly into a performance-optimized configuration.
At the core of the platform is innovation in hybrid-electric powertrain and optimum-speed tiltrotors:
The tiltrotor configuration, series hybrid-electric powertrain, and rotor technology provides this platform with the range necessary to support global self-deployment. Alternatively, the aircraft can be packed into a standard shipping container for transport by air, road, rail, or sea, offering the multi-modal transport logistics required to reach where it needs to be.
Designed for low-cost, high-volume production using commercial supply chains, the platform behind Halo and Thunder is built to support broad deployment, rapid production and the scale commercial and defense markets require.
"Over the past eight years we've engineered, tested and scaled the technology this platform is built on. The powertrain, the batteries, the motors, the manufacturing. We partnered with Anduril to take all of that knowledge and build something new: a clean-sheet aircraft in a completely different class of range, speed and payload. I believe this is the most sophisticated vertical lift aircraft platform ever developed—it’s exactly what our customers need," said Adam Goldstein, Founder and CEO of Archer.
Platform Capabilities
Halo brings together capabilities no existing unmanned aircraft combines:
Commercial Opportunity
Halo arrives amid a growing need for commercial logistics to move heavy payloads long distances, fast, into places with no runway, at a fraction of the cost of legacy platforms.
Highlighting this demand, Archer announced Marubeni Aerospace Corporation as a strategic launch partner for Halo.
Marubeni Aerospace is engaged in business development in the aviation and space fields. It is a subsidiary of the aerospace and mobility arm of Marubeni Corporation, one of Japan’s largest general trading companies. It has long-standing experience as a specialized trading company in the aviation sector, representing major international aircraft and helicopter manufacturers. The partnership will focus on joint market research, use case identification and future introduction of Halo.
"Currently, even in cargo transport operations that do not require onboard crew, flights are conducted with human pilots, absorbing the cost, scheduling constraints and human exposure that come with it," said Satoru Nakagawa, President and CEO, Marubeni Aerospace Corporation. "Halo's unmanned, autonomous flight capabilities can address these challenges, and combined with its excellent range, payload capacity and VTOL capability, make it a highly suitable solution that we are pleased to introduce and support for our customers as a first strategic partner."
About Archer
Archer builds the aircraft and technologies that will define the next era of flight for aerospace.
Forward-Looking Statements and Disclaimers
This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding Archer's future business plans, expectations, and opportunities. These statements include those regarding design, target specifications and use cases of its aircraft; timing of Archer's development, commercialization, and manufacturing of its aircraft; development of its planned lines of business and opportunities; and anticipated benefits of collaborations with third parties. In addition, this press release refers to agreements that remain conditional, subject to the future execution of definitive agreements and the satisfaction of certain conditions. Such agreements may not be completed or may contain different terms than those currently contemplated. Forward-looking statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual results due to a variety of factors. The risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from the results predicted are more fully detailed in Archer's filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, available at investors.archer.com and at www.sec.gov. Any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on assumptions that Archer believes to be reasonable as of the date of this press release. Archer undertakes no obligation to update these statements as a result of new information or future events.
Source: Archer Aviation
Text: ArcherIR
Pictured: Halo, the commercial variant of Anduril and Archer’s jointly-developed aircraft platform.
Pictured: Halo, the commercial variant of Archer and Anduril's jointly-developed dual-use platform built to serve both defense and commercial applications.
