Archer named 2028 Olympics air taxi provider

by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition

Photo credit: Harlan Huntington, with the Air Reserve Personnel Center

Aviation International News has announced that Archer has been named the official air taxi provider for the 2028 Olympic Games, to be held in Los Angeles. Air taxis are eVTOLs, or electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft. They fall (deliberate word choice) within the category of advanced air mobility aircraft. Archer still has to obtain FAA certification for commercial use.

I am a skeptic. I see eVTOLs as electric Hindenburgs. After all, a certain tech mogul has been promising completely self-driving cars for years, and they still aren’t available for sale. Highway safety officials are investigating several vehicle crashes, including fatal ones, when self-driving features have been used. 

I’ll believe it when I see the Archer eVTOLs flying over Los Angeles, but not before. The vertiports are planned for only a handful of locations, so it’s not clear to me how useful these aircraft will be for those trying to get to the widespread Olympic venues.

As I have often written about the future, we’ll have to wait and see.