Introducing Halo: Archer’s Commercial Variant of Dual-Use Autonomous VTOL Aircraft Platform Developed With Anduril
Farnborough International Airshow, UK, July 22, 2026 Archer Aviation 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. Archer Technology Stack This new dual-use autonomous VTOL aircraft platform, highlighted by its Halo and Thunder 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: Hybrid-Electric Powertrain: A series hybrid-electric powertrain enables Halo to achieve significant range and endurance, while closely optimizing power through the full range of flight conditions. Dual Tiltrotors: Dual tiltrotors vary rotor RPM to maintain efficiency across flight regimes, reducing power demand and fuel burn in cruise and minimizing noise for operations in suburban and noise-sensitive environments. 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: Long range, high speed: Enough range to reach remote and offshore sites, with the speed available when necessary. Heavy payload: Carries what the job demands in a modular payload bay configurable per use case. Series hybrid-electric propulsion: Delivers energy efficient, low-noise flight while lowering operating cost per mission for commercial operators. Autonomous: No pilot means lower cost, no human exposure on hazardous missions and higher utilization for more missions per day per airframe VTOL: Takes off and lands vertically for access to locations without a runway. 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. Offshore Energy: Regular resupply and cargo runs to oil, gas and wind platforms on schedule, without crew exposure over water, and at low cost. Freight: Heavy, time-sensitive freight flown between hubs, ports and distribution points to locations fixed-wing aircraft can’t reach. Humanitarian and Medical Cargo: Emergency supply into disaster zones, wildfire logistics and time-sensitive therapies flown direct from freight hubs to hospitals in a single flight. Maritime: Long-range autonomous operations in support of maritime missions. 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.”
