SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 3, 2026--
Archer Aviation (NYSE: ACHR) today announced the completion of a piloted roundtrip journey with its all-electric Midnight aircraft on July 30th, departing from Salinas Municipal Airport and landing at Monterey Regional Airport before making the return flight. Archer worked closely with the FAA to execute this piloted, round trip inter city flight, a major step toward launching Midnight operations under the White House’s eIPP program later this year.
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Midnight covered each leg of the journey in roughly nine minutes, a trip that can take ~35+ minutes by car, demonstrating the kind of short, time-saving hops the aircraft was built to fly.
“This roundtrip journey is exactly the kind of route we plan to fly with Midnight under the eIPP and in LA during the Olympic Games,” said Adam Goldstein, founder and CEO of Archer. “This mission provides a template for us to replicate with our partners across Texas, Florida and New York as we get ready for eIPP operations later this year.”
As part of its broader eIPP efforts, Archer is working closely with the FAA, federal, state and local partners to establish the procedures, infrastructure and local operational capabilities needed to support future commercial air taxi operations. That work also supports preparations in Los Angeles, where Archer will serve as the Official Air Taxi Provider for the LA28 Olympic Games.
Archer’s Midnight air taxi is designed to enable passengers to replace 60-90 minute trips on the ground with quiet, all-electric flights, dramatically reducing travel times compared to traditional ground transportation and helping avoid growing levels of congestion.
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Source: Archer Aviation
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Archer Forward-Looking Statements
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; the timing and scope of Archer’s planned operations under the eVTOL Integration Pilot Program; Archer’s planned operations in connection with its eIPP partner states and the LA28 Olympic Games; and the development of procedures, infrastructure and local teams needed to support air taxi operations. 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.
Image: A view from Midnight’s cockpit during Archer’s round trip journey between Salinas and Monterey
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian planes dropped eight powerful glide bombs in a span of 90 minutes on residential districts of the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, killing one person and wounding dozens of others, regional chief Ivan Fedorov said Monday.
Meanwhile, six people were killed by Ukrainian drone debris in Arkhipo-Osipovka, a small town on Russia’s Black Sea coast in the Krasnodar region, regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev said, adding that 40 others were wounded.
Three other people were killed and two were wounded in Ukraine's overnight attack on the illegally annexed Crimea, said the peninsula’s Russian-installed head, Sergei Aksyonov. He gave no details.
Neither side’s claims could be independently verified.
Ukraine’s innovative long-range drone technology developed during the war has enabled Kyiv to sign military cooperation agreements with nine countries, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday.
Under the deals, Ukraine receives long-term funding for its defense industry while partner countries get new defense capabilities, he said, adding that agreements with 15 other countries are being negotiated.
Ukraine is using its long-range strike drones to hit targets deep inside Russia in an effort to push Russian President Vladimir Putin into seeking a peace settlement, Zelenskyy said in a speech to Ukrainian diplomats.
“We will work very hard to make that happen this fall,” he said.
Ukraine wants countries to adopt heavier international sanctions on Moscow, but existing sanctions also need tightening to prevent Russian companies from exploiting loopholes, he said.
Zelenskyy also announced he is appointing Rustem Umerov, who has been involved in U.S. diplomatic efforts to stop the war, as head of the Foreign Intelligence Service.
Russia has used glide bombs against Ukrainian towns and cities since it invaded its neighbor more than four years ago. The Soviet-era bombs are retrofitted with guidance systems and can carry up to 3,000 kilograms (6,600 pounds) of explosives, leaving huge craters. Ukraine has no effective countermeasures.
The Sunday evening onslaught on Zaporizhzhia killed a 71-year-old woman and wounded 31 people, including a 16-year-old girl, as the glide bombs damaged 22 apartment buildings in four districts of the city, Fedorov said.
While Moscow’s forces have captured the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and hold other parts of the region, its capital city of the same name remains in Ukrainian hands. It is one of the four regions, along with Donetsk, Kherson and Luhansk, that Russia illegally annexed in September 2022 even though its forces do not completely control them.
Other large-scale damage of civilian areas has resulted from Russian ballistic missiles, and late Sunday Zelenskyy made another urgent plea for countries to send Ukraine more U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems.
Only Patriot interceptors can reliably stop ballistic missiles, but they are in short supply due to the Iran war.
“The United States knows what we need. Europe knows what we need. Anti-ballistic missiles must protect people — not sit in stockpiles," Zelenskyy said on social media.
U.S. President Donald Trump last week appeared to back off from his earlier commitment to give Ukraine a license to make Patriots itself. He said Friday that he hasn’t made a final decision.
Zelenskyy has suggested an alternative to Trump whereby Elon Musk allows Ukraine to use Starlink satellites to target ballistic missile launch sites inside Russia. Officials haven't publicly said whether that is being considered.
Russia attacked Ukraine with 181 long-range strike drones overnight from Sunday to Monday, according to the Ukrainian air force. It said air defenses jammed and intercepted 163 drones, but 14 caused damage at 13 locations.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces struck four bulk carriers carrying cargo for the Ukrainian armed forces, including three in waters of the Black Sea and one in the port of Mykolaiv, but provided no further information.
Ukrainian drones also struck another major warehouse belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s biggest online shopping company. The strike was part of a campaign that has hit more than a dozen of the retailer’s distribution hubs and severely disrupted its business.
A Wildberries warehouse in the Vladimir region east of Moscow caught fire in the latest attack, the company said Monday. Three people were injured, Vladimir Gov. Alexander Avdeyev said.
Ukrainian drones also struck the Saratov oil refinery in southwestern Russia, Zelenskyy said. Kyiv has repeatedly targeted that refinery, and many others, since last year as it tries to choke fuel supplies to the Russian army and deny Moscow income from oil exports.
Zelenskyy said the Engels military air base near Saratov, the main base for Russian nuclear-capable strategic bombers, and other places inside Russia, including fuel storage tanks at the Lyudinovskaya oil depot in Russia’s Kaluga region, were targeted.
The Russian Defense Ministry on Monday reported that its air defenses overnight intercepted 131 Ukrainian drones over a number of Russian regions, as well as Crimea and the Black Sea.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
A burned car is seen after a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)
