{"id":43375,"date":"2025-11-08T01:00:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T01:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/43375\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T01:00:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T01:00:10","slug":"huntington-beach-explores-vertical-taxi-pilot-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/43375\/","title":{"rendered":"Huntington Beach explores vertical taxi pilot program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A possible three-year pilot program that would bring a vertical taxi to Huntington Beach was presented to the City Council during a study session Tuesday night by Archer Aviation representatives.<\/p>\n

Archer <\/a>is an electric aircraft technology company that\u2019s looking to expand its network, said George Kivork, the firm\u2019s general manager for Southern California. <\/p>\n

The aircraft is 100 times quieter than a helicopter, Kivork said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would like to explore the opportunity to bring this zero-emission, all-electric aircraft to this market, to this community,\u201d Kivork said. <\/p>\n

The aircraft seats four passengers and a pilot, goes up to 150 miles per hour and has a range of up to 100 miles. The idea is to utilize the plane for short hops between cities, like from Huntington Beach to Los Angeles International Airport or Long Beach Airport.<\/p>\n

He added that the company has been working with the Federal Aviation Administration to become certified. It is currently in the test pilot phase.<\/p>\n

Archer recently purchased a 60,000-square-foot research and development facility<\/a> in Huntington Beach from Mission Critical Composites.<\/p>\n

Archer also announced this week that it is purchasing Hawthorne Airport<\/a> for $126 million, in conjunction with plans to become an air taxi provider for upcoming events including the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. <\/p>\n

In June, President Trump signed an executive order titled \u201cUnleashing American Drone Dominance.\u201d Melissa McCaffrey, Archer\u2019s head of government affairs, said during the presentation that this clears the way for a launch.<\/p>\n

Proposals to the federal government for such programs must be submitted by Dec. 11.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city would be the lead in this application, and we would be supportive,\u201d McCaffrey said. <\/p>\n

Councilmember Chad Williams asked the representatives to speak more about the economic benefits of a partnership.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, long-term, there\u2019s a lot of opportunity for this to be an economic driver for the city, with job creation,\u201d McCaffrey responded. \u201cWhen it comes to the actual aircraft operations, we\u2019ll have maintenance folks, scheduling folks … And the pilots have the opportunity to stay local, so I do anticipate a lot of the pilot jobs will be folks that live in Huntington Beach and [elsewhere in] Orange County.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kivork said Archer is currently flying regularly and testing the aircraft at Salinas Airport in Northern California. The aircraft can charge within a few minutes for the \u201cshort hop\u201d flights and then can be fully charged at the end of the night, similarly to a cellphone.<\/p>\n

\"An <\/p>\n

A simulated image of Archer Aviation\u2019s air taxi, which will be used to transport VIPs and fans at the L.A. 2028 Summer Olympics. <\/p>\n

(Archer Aviation)<\/p>\n

Since the aircraft utilizes vertical takeoffs and landings, it does not require a runway.<\/p>\n

Councilmember Andrew Gruel confirmed that there\u2019s no money investment necessary on the part of Huntington Beach, and brought up \u201cThe Jetsons\u201d cartoon series for residents who might be worried about rapid expansion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will not be flooding the skies with several aircraft,\u201d McCaffrey said to him. \u201cIt will definitely be a gradual thing over the course of time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A possible three-year pilot program that would bring a vertical taxi to Huntington Beach was presented to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[7271,7089,1610,28949,588,131,133,132,63,1741,28953,28950,2663,1424,5853,28952,28954,28951],"class_list":["post-43375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-aircraft","tag-archer","tag-city-council","tag-george-kivork","tag-huntington-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-lot","tag-maintenance-folk","tag-melissa-mccaffrey","tag-mile","tag-opportunity","tag-pilot","tag-short-hop","tag-time-quieter","tag-vertical-taxi-pilot-program"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}