eVTOL vertiport planned for Los Angeles

by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition

Photo Credit: Gabriel Tovar

The Aviation International News (AIN) website reported that Archer Aviation and Anschutz Entertainment Group plan to develop an eVTOL vertiport in downtown Los Angeles at the L.A. Live sports and entertainment district. eVOTLs are said to be significantly quieter than conventional helicopters. Archer is the official air taxi provider for the 2028 Olympics and for Team USA. According to the report, Archer’s planned network would link L.A. Live with LAX, Hollywood Burbank Airport, John Wayne Airport in Orange County, and the University of Southern California, using Hawthorne Municipal Airport as its central operational hub. The details of the L.A. Live site are still sketchy, with the possible use of the roof of a large parking garage.

The proposed aircraft is Archer’s Midnight, which can carry four passengers up to 100 miles. Archer claims that its aircraft would carry passengers over LA’s gridlocked traffic in 10-20 minutes with much less noise than a helicopter. The report notes that the plane is not yet FAA-certified and it has not yet flown through “a piloted transition from vertical to forward flight.” The details of exactly what the FAA requires for a vertiport still appear to be under development, with the FAA stating, “There is currently limited performance data on how VTOL aircraft operate. Research efforts are underway to better understand the performance capabilities and design characteristics of emerging VTOL aircraft. The FAA will develop a performance-based AC [Advisory Circular] on vertiport design in the future, as additional performance data is gleaned about these emerging VTOL aircraft.”

I’ve been reading about flying vehicles since my childhood, a long time ago. Opening day for the 2028 Olympic Games is less than two years away. Only time will tell whether Archer’s eVTOL planes actually fly over Southern California, and what their impacts will be.