Archer Aviation Inc (ACHR) 2022 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, and thank you for attending today's Archer Aviation Second Quarter 2022 Conference Call. My name is Daniel, and I will be your moderator for today's call. (Operator Instructions)

下午好，感謝您參加今天的 Archer Aviation 2022 年第二季度電話會議。我的名字是丹尼爾，我將擔任今天電話會議的主持人。 （操作員說明）

I would now like to pass the conference over to our host, Andy Missan, Chief Legal Officer. Please proceed.

我現在想將會議轉交給我們的主持人，首席法務官 Andy Missan。請繼續。

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today to review Archer's second quarter 2022 financial results. My name is Andy Missan, the Chief Legal Officer of Archer Aviation, Inc. With us on the call today are Adam Goldstein, our CEO; Mark Mesler, our CFO; and Tom Muniz, our COO.

謝謝你，接線員。大家下午好，感謝您今天加入我們，回顧 Archer 2022 年第二季度的財務業績。我是 Archer Aviation, Inc 的首席法律官 Andy Missan。今天與我們通話的是我們的首席執行官 Adam Goldstein；我們的首席財務官 Mark Mesler；和我們的首席運營官 Tom Muniz。

We posted a shareholder letter detailing our Q2 2022 financial results and business overview to our IR website. This call is being recorded, and an archive will be available on our IR website.

我們在 IR 網站上發布了一封詳細說明我們 2022 年第二季度財務業績和業務概覽的股東信函。此通話正在錄音中，我們的 IR 網站上將提供存檔。

Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that during today's call, we'll be making forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or actual future results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are described in the Risk Factors section of our annual report on Form 10-K, our 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2022, and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission available on the SEC's website and on our Investor Relations website. Except as required by law, Archer disclaims any obligation to update or make revisions to such forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future events.

在開始之前，我想提醒大家，在今天的電話會議中，我們將做出前瞻性陳述。這些前瞻性陳述受到風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致實際事件或實際未來結果與前瞻性陳述中明示或暗示的內容存在重大差異。這些風險和不確定性在我們的 10-K 表格年度報告的風險因素部分、我們截至 2022 年 3 月 31 日的季度期間的 10-Q 以及美國證券交易委員會網站上向證券交易委員會提交的其他文件中進行了描述，以及在我們的投資者關係網站上。除法律要求外，Archer 不承擔因新信息或未來事件而更新或修訂此類前瞻性陳述的任何義務。

Also please note, on this call, certain financial measures are presented on a non-GAAP basis. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in our shareholder letter posted on our Investor Relations website. We'll begin with commentary and then we'll open up the call to questions.

另請注意，在本次電話會議中，某些財務指標是在非公認會計原則的基礎上提出的。這些非 GAAP 財務措施與最直接可比的 GAAP 措施的對賬包含在我們發佈在我們的投資者關係網站上的股東信中。我們將從評論開始，然後我們將打開問題的電話。

And with that, I'd like to turn the call over to Adam Goldstein. Adam?

有了這個，我想把電話轉給亞當·戈德斯坦。亞當？

Thanks, Andy. We are excited to share with you all today the continued progress that we have made. We are now at an inflection point in the company where we are advancing our commercialization efforts.

謝謝，安迪。今天，我們很高興與大家分享我們所取得的持續進展。我們現在正處於公司的一個轉折點，我們正在推進我們的商業化努力。

This includes the development and certification of our production aircraft, building out the supply chain and manufacturing infrastructure needed to produce the aircraft and kicking off efforts to prepare for our initial launch markets and routes for commercial operations. The proof point and the confidence of our development can also be seen by the actions of our partners.

這包括我們生產型飛機的開發和認證，建立生產飛機所需的供應鍊和製造基礎設施，並開始為我們的初始發射市場和商業運營路線做準備。從合作夥伴的行動中也可以看出我們發展的證明點和信心。

As we announced earlier today, we have received a $10 million pre-delivery payment from United Airlines on 100 aircrafts as part of their purchase agreement for up to 200 aircrafts. We believe this is the first such pre-delivery payment of its kind in the eVTOL space, and it reflects the maturity of our aircraft development program and the confidence United Airlines has in our commercialization efforts.

正如我們今天早些時候宣布的那樣，作為他們購買多達 200 架飛機的協議的一部分，我們已收到聯合航空公司 100 架飛機的 1000 萬美元交付前付款。我們認為，這是 eVTOL 領域首次此類交付前付款，這反映了我們飛機開發計劃的成熟度以及聯合航空公司對我們商業化努力的信心。

The technical progress of the Maker aircraft has been outstanding. It is an important aircraft for us because it has validated many of the key capabilities of our 12 tilt 6 configuration, software, flight control and other key design decisions. The advancements we have made with Maker have proven we have chosen the right aircraft configuration that can balance performance against complexity.

Maker飛機的技術進步非常突出。它對我們來說是一架重要的飛機，因為它驗證了我們 12 傾斜 6 配置、軟件、飛行控制和其他關鍵設計決策的許多關鍵功能。我們與 Maker 一起取得的進步證明我們選擇了正確的飛機配置，可以平衡性能和復雜性。

Archer's goal has always been to develop an aircraft that can perform rapid back-to-back 10 to 50 mile flights while maintaining the lowest level of complexity possible to ensure the vehicle can be certified, mass manufactured and operated in a cost-efficient manner. Its performance since its first hover flight in the summer of last year has demonstrated the engineering excellence of our team.

Archer 的目標一直是開發一種能夠執行 10 到 50 英里快速背靠背飛行的飛機，同時保持盡可能低的複雜性，以確保車輛能夠以具有成本效益的方式獲得認證、大規模製造和運營。自去年夏天首次懸停飛行以來，它的表現證明了我們團隊的工程卓越性。

I believe the progress we have made with Maker has been nothing short of incredible and industry-leading in terms of time to execution. It's important to remember that the purpose of Maker is to be a test bed to support the development of our pilot plus 4 passenger production aircraft that we are working to certify with the FAA.

我相信，就執行時間而言，我們與 Maker 合作取得的進展令人難以置信且處於行業領先地位。重要的是要記住，Maker 的目的是成為一個試驗台，以支持我們的飛行員和 4 架客機生產飛機的開發，我們正在努力通過 FAA 進行認證。

The advancements we have made in the Maker program have enabled substantial progress in the development of our production aircraft, and we are now at the point where we will shift the focus of our discussions towards the production aircraft.

我們在 Maker 計劃中取得的進步使我們的生產飛機的開發取得了實質性進展，我們現在正處於將討論的重點轉移到生產飛機上的地步。

Given this shift today, I'm excited to reveal the name of our production aircraft, Midnight. You can see a teaser Silhouette rendering of Midnight on the cover of our shareholder letter, and we plan to do a more robust unveil of it in the near future. The design of Midnight was optimized around commercial operations with key performance requirements like payload, range and speed intended to yield the best possible operating economics for the business.

鑑於今天的這種轉變，我很高興能透露我們生產飛機的名稱，午夜。您可以在我們的股東信封面上看到午夜的預告剪影渲染，我們計劃在不久的將來對其進行更強大的揭幕。 Midnight 的設計針對商業運營進行了優化，具有關鍵性能要求，如有效載荷、範圍和速度，旨在為企業帶來最佳的運營經濟性。

Today the vast majority of our 400-plus employees are working day-to-day on the development and certification of Midnight as well supporting go-to-market activities. This past week, we completed Midnight's preliminary design review or PDR. The PDR is where we review and freeze the key design elements of the aircraft.

今天，我們 400 多名員工中的絕大多數每天都在致力於 Midnight 的開發和認證以及支持上市活動。上週，我們完成了 Midnight 的初步設計審查或 PDR。 PDR 是我們審查和凍結飛機關鍵設計元素的地方。

PDR is not just another development lifecycle milestone. It's about ensuring that we are on track from a program development timing standpoint, maintaining vehicle performance characteristics around speed, range and payload and not introducing any design complexity that would cause unnecessary risk to the FAA certification process or to scale manufacturability.

PDR 不僅僅是另一個開發生命週期里程碑。從項目開發時間的角度來看，這是為了確保我們走上正軌，保持車輛在速度、範圍和有效載荷方面的性能特徵，並且不會引入任何可能對 FAA 認證過程或規模可製造性造成不必要風險的設計複雜性。

I'm extremely happy with where we are at this point in the program. The talent on the Archer team is truly exceptional. As the aircraft development has matured, we are also building our go-to-market team. We have recently onboarded 2 leaders that are key to our commercialization efforts; Tom Anderson as our Chief Operating Officer for Urban Air Mobility and [Brian Bernhardt] as Chief Growth and Infrastructure Officer. As Archer advances commercialization of our aircraft and launching our UAM network in major cities, Tom's deep experience in airline management, operations and fleet maintenance will help us introduce and scale the UAM business utilizing Midnight. Tom has spent his career developing and scaling commercial airline operations, including taking JetBlue from concept operation.

我對我們目前在項目中所處的位置感到非常滿意。 Archer 團隊的人才確實非常出色。隨著飛機開發的成熟，我們也在建立我們的上市團隊。我們最近聘請了 2 位對我們的商業化工作至關重要的領導人； Tom Anderson 擔任我們城市空中交通的首席運營官，[Brian Bernhardt] 擔任首席增長和基礎設施官。隨著 Archer 推進我們的飛機商業化並在主要城市推出我們的 UAM 網絡，Tom 在航空公司管理、運營和機隊維護方面的豐富經驗將幫助我們利用 Midnight 引入和擴展 UAM 業務。湯姆在他的職業生涯中一直致力於開發和擴展商業航空公司的運營，包括將捷藍航空從概念運營中帶走。

Core to the build-out effort is ensuring the necessary infrastructure is in place. Brian will be here responsible for building and scaling Archer's operational footprint across our target markets. He spent 9 years at [WeWork] expanding their infrastructure footprint as Global Head of Development. He was responsible for launching a majority of their key markets and has built hundreds of physical locations spanning across cities around the world. Brian brings to Archer expertise in not only scaling physical growth, but how to do so in accordance with all local and jurisdictional guidelines. We are looking forward to sharing more details on our go-to-market strategy with you on future calls.

擴建工作的核心是確保必要的基礎設施到位。 Brian 將在這裡負責在我們的目標市場建立和擴展 Archer 的運營足跡。他在 [WeWork] 工作了 9 年，擔任全球開發主管，擴大了他們的基礎設施足跡。他負責啟動他們的大部分主要市場，並在世界各地的城市建立了數百個實體店。 Brian 為 Archer 帶來了不僅在擴展身體增長方面的專業知識，而且在如何根據所有當地和司法管轄區的指導方針這樣做。我們期待在未來的電話會議上與您分享有關我們進入市場戰略的更多細節。

I now want to take a few minutes to update you on our progress against the key milestones we've highlighted in our shareholder letters since February. Our 2022 milestones are focused on both Maker and Midnight. There's 1 Maker milestone and 2 Midnight milestones.

我現在想花幾分鐘時間向您介紹我們自 2 月以來在股東信中強調的關鍵里程碑的進展情況。我們 2022 年的里程碑集中在 Maker 和 Midnight。有 1 個 Maker 里程碑和 2 個 Midnight 里程碑。

Our first milestone is a Maker milestone, and that is to successfully complete the first full transition flight. The second milestone is a Midnight milestone, and that is agreeing with the FAA on our means of compliance with the certification basis established in the G1 issue paper we finalized last fall. And the third milestone is also a Midnight milestone, and that is to select and break ground on our initial manufacturing facility.

我們的第一個里程碑是 Maker 里程碑，那就是成功完成第一次完整的過渡飛行。第二個里程碑是午夜里程碑，即與 FAA 就我們遵守我們去年秋天最終確定的 G1 問題文件中建立的認證基礎的方式達成一致。第三個里程碑也是午夜的里程碑，那就是選擇我們的初始製造設施並破土動工。

Now let's take those in order. As we announced 2 weeks ago, we have completed the first 2 phases of our Maker flight test program, hover and critical azimuth. We are regularly flying many times per week and sometimes multiple times per day.

現在讓我們按順序排列。正如我們兩週前宣布的那樣，我們已經完成了 Maker 飛行測試計劃的前兩個階段，懸停和臨界方位角。我們每周定期飛行多次，有時每天多次飛行。

We are now shifting into the third phase of Maker's flight test program, during which we will evaluate its system performance at increasing forward speeds. We remain on track to complete our first full transition hovered fixed wing flight later this year.

我們現在正在進入 Maker 飛行測試計劃的第三階段，在此期間，我們將評估其在前進速度增加時的系統性能。我們仍有望在今年晚些時候完成我們的第一次全面過渡懸停固定翼飛行。

With respect to our second goal, we continue to work closely with the FAA to facilitate agreement on our Means of Compliance for our Midnight production aircraft. We believe we remain on track to achieve that goal.

關於我們的第二個目標，我們將繼續與 FAA 密切合作，以促進就我們的午夜生產飛機的合規方式達成協議。我們相信我們將繼續朝著實現這一目標前進。

Finally, to successfully commercialize Midnight, we have to manufacture it at scale. That's why our other 2022 milestone is focused on manufacturing. We've evaluated over 200 sites across the U.S. in collaboration with Stellantis. We are on track to announce more details on our progress in this area later this year.

最後，為了成功地將 Midnight 商業化，我們必須大規模生產它。這就是為什麼我們在 2022 年的另一個里程碑專注於製造業。我們與 Stellantis 合作評估了美國各地的 200 多個站點。我們有望在今年晚些時候公佈我們在這一領域取得的進展的更多細節。

With that, I'm going to hand it over to Tom Muniz, our COO, to share with you some further insight into how the team has transitioned from the Maker to Midnight program.

有了這個，我將把它交給我們的首席運營官 Tom Muniz，與你分享一些關於團隊如何從 Maker 過渡到 Midnight 計劃的進一步見解。

Thanks, Adam. I'm very excited about Archer's progress in the second quarter and more recently with the successful completion of our PDR, we truly are at an inflection point.

謝謝，亞當。我對 Archer 在第二季度的進展感到非常興奮，最近隨著我們 PDR 的成功完成，我們確實處於一個轉折點。

Our strategy from the outset has been to take the most capital and time efficient path to developing our production aircraft and launching commercial operations. Maker was a key element of the strategy and has provided invaluable technical data and has served as a reference design point for establishing our production aircraft certification requirements.

從一開始，我們的戰略就是採取最節省資金和時間的方式來開發我們的生產型飛機並開展商業運營。 Maker 是該戰略的關鍵要素，提供了寶貴的技術數據，並作為參考設計點來建立我們的生產飛機認證要求。

We knew from day 1 that it was better to start by building a demonstrator aircraft, Maker, in parallel with our work with FAA to set the certification requirements for our production aircraft. This is because it has allowed us to have greater certainty on the certification requirements before getting too far along the development of the production aircraft when changes to design due to certification requirements become more challenging and costly.

從第一天起，我們就知道最好先建造一架演示飛機 Maker，同時與 FAA 合作，為我們的生產型飛機設定認證要求。這是因為當由於認證要求而對設計進行更改變得更具挑戰性和成本更高時，它使我們能夠在生產飛機的開發中走得太遠之前對認證要求有更大的確定性。

Our production aircraft, Midnight, has been designed and optimized around certification and our planned commercial operations. Midnight is designed for high throughput urban air mobility flights. Midnight is designed to be able to complete back-to-back missions with minimal time charging on the ground, while passengers load and unload between flights. This is a key driver to the bottom line of our operating model.

我們的生產型飛機 Midnight 圍繞認證和我們計劃的商業運營進行了設計和優化。 Midnight 專為高吞吐量城市空中機動飛行而設計。 Midnight 旨在以最少的時間在地面充電完成背靠背任務，同時乘客在航班之間裝卸。這是我們運營模式底線的關鍵驅動因素。

As Adam mentioned, our team successfully completed our PDR for Midnight earlier this week. This is a major milestone in any development program, and I'd like to share some of the key performance metrics from Midnight that came out of the PDR and why they're important for commercialization of our aircraft.

正如亞當所說，我們的團隊本週早些時候成功完成了午夜的 PDR。這是任何開發計劃中的一個重要里程碑，我想分享一些來自 PDR 的 Midnight 的關鍵性能指標，以及為什麼它們對我們的飛機商業化很重要。

One of the most critical metrics we track is payload, the weight of the pilot, passengers and baggage that the aircraft can carry. For an eVTOL, payload is the hardest performance metric to achieve as it is the output from all other design decisions that affect the weight of the aircraft.

我們跟踪的最關鍵指標之一是有效載荷、飛行員、乘客和飛機可以攜帶的行李的重量。對於 eVTOL，有效載荷是最難實現的性能指標，因為它是影響飛機重量的所有其他設計決策的輸出。

Midnight is expected to have a payload of over 1,000 pounds, which we believe will be industry-leading. This payload is important because it supports our operating model of generating revenue from up to 4 passengers per flight. We are extremely excited that output of our PDR to be validated, is key enabler to our commercial operations.

Midnight 的有效載荷預計將超過 1,000 磅，我們相信這將是行業領先的。這個有效載荷很重要，因為它支持我們從每個航班最多 4 名乘客中創收的運營模式。我們非常高興我們的 PDR 輸出得到驗證，是我們商業運營的關鍵推動力。

Another key metric is the minimum turnaround time needed to charge the plane assuming it has completed a typical 20-mile flight. Our analysis is showing that only about 10 minutes is needed on the ground to charge between such flights. This metric is also critical to achieving our operating model as this will facilitate fast turnaround times on the ground and enable higher aircraft and, therefore, passenger throughput.

另一個關鍵指標是假設飛機已完成典型的 20 英里飛行，為飛機充電所需的最短周轉時間。我們的分析表明，在地面上只需要大約 10 分鐘即可在此類航班之間充電。該指標對於實現我們的運營模式也至關重要，因為這將有助於加快地面周轉時間並提高飛機的吞吐量，從而提高乘客吞吐量。

I also want to touch on our metric of direct operating costs. The success of our PDR has given us even greater fidelity that these costs are going to land at or below our internal targets, giving us high confidence in our ability to make flying on our aircraft accessible with prices comparable to ground-based ridesharing options.

我還想談談我們的直接運營成本指標。我們的 PDR 的成功讓我們更加確信這些成本將達到或低於我們的內部目標，讓我們對我們能夠以與地面拼車選項相媲美的價格進行飛機飛行的能力充滿信心。

As we move beyond PDR, we are ramping up our manufacturing and supply chain activities as well as progressing the build of an initial Midnight aircraft that will enter flight test next year. We anticipate parts for the Midnight aircraft will start arriving at our low rate initial production facility later this year. We have already discussed the status of our manufacturing site selection, which remains on track. When it comes to supply chain, as we've discussed before, we are focused on collaborating with and sourcing from proven aerospace suppliers.

隨著我們超越 PDR，我們正在加強我們的製造和供應鏈活動，並推進初始午夜飛機的建造，該飛機將於明年進入飛行測試。我們預計午夜飛機的零件將在今年晚些時候開始到達我們的低速率初始生產設施。我們已經討論了我們的製造地點選擇的狀態，該狀態仍在進行中。在供應鏈方面，正如我們之前所討論的，我們專注於與經過驗證的航空航天供應商合作和採購。

We've selected suppliers for approximately 50% of the bill of materials for Midnight by cost. A couple of recent examples are our selection of FACC to fabricate structural components for Midnight and Honeywell for our actuators and climate system technology. We will continue to announce relationships with key suppliers as they are finalized over the coming months.

我們為 Midnight 按成本選擇了大約 50% 的材料清單供應商。最近的幾個例子是我們選擇 FACC 來製造 Midnight 和 Honeywell 的結構部件，用於我們的執行器和氣候系統技術。我們將繼續宣布與主要供應商的關係，因為它們將在未來幾個月內敲定。

With that, I'll turn it over to Mark to discuss the financials for the quarter.

有了這個，我將把它交給馬克討論本季度的財務狀況。

Thanks, Tom. This is an exciting time for Archer. As both Adam and Tom just outlined, the successful exit of our PDR moves Archer into its next phase of development on our production aircraft and advances our commercialization efforts.

謝謝，湯姆。這對 Archer 來說是一個激動人心的時刻。正如 Adam 和 Tom 剛剛概述的那樣，我們 PDR 的成功退出使 Archer 進入了我們生產飛機的下一階段開發，並推進了我們的商業化努力。

PDR provided us confidence that Midnight can achieve the key operating assumptions associated with our business model. This is important as we mature our go-to-market strategy. I'd like to briefly share with you how our confidence in 3 of those metrics for our Midnight aircraft: Range, turnaround time and aircraft costs, enable our business plan from a top line and cost standpoint.

PDR 讓我們相信 Midnight 能夠實現與我們的業務模式相關的關鍵運營假設。這一點很重要，因為我們成熟了我們的上市戰略。我想與您簡要分享一下我們對午夜飛機的其中 3 個指標的信心：航程、周轉時間和飛機成本，如何從收入和成本的角度實現我們的業務計劃。

Let's start with the top line. As we have discussed in the past, our revenue model has 2 primary drivers: One, the direct sale of our aircraft operators like the contract we have with United, which we just received a $10 million pre-delivery payment on 100 aircraft. And two, the operation of a UAM network in the top cities in the U.S. and around the world with target mission profiles in the 10 to 50 mile range.

讓我們從第一行開始。正如我們過去所討論的，我們的收入模式有兩個主要驅動因素：第一，直接銷售我們的飛機運營商，就像我們與美聯航的合同一樣，我們剛剛收到了 1000 萬美元的 100 架飛機交付前付款。第二，在美國和世界各地的主要城市運營 UAM 網絡，目標任務剖面在 10 到 50 英里範圍內。

As Tom discussed, based on our PDR, our data supports Midnight's payload will be greater than a 1,000 pounds. This is an extremely important metric for us as well as the industry. We believe that commercial feasibility in both of our revenue models is predicated on having the ability to transport up to 4 passengers.

正如 Tom 所討論的，根據我們的 PDR，我們的數據支持 Midnight 的有效載荷將大於 1,000 磅。這對我們和整個行業來說都是一個極其重要的指標。我們認為，我們兩種收入模式的商業可行性都取決於能否運送多達 4 名乘客。

The PDR process has provided us greater confidence that Midnight will be able to transport 4 passengers plus a pilot. And given that, we believe strongly that Midnight aircraft can support these 2 revenue models.

PDR 流程讓我們更加相信 Midnight 將能夠運送 4 名乘客和一名飛行員。鑑於此，我們堅信午夜飛機可以支持這兩種收入模式。

Tom also discussed the validation of an approximate 10-minute charge time for Midnight following a 20-mile flight. Given our target missions are in the 10 to 50 mile range, that is also a very important metric as we try to maximize the number of flights our aircraft can perform on a daily basis.

Tom 還討論了在 20 英里的飛行後驗證 Midnight 大約 10 分鐘的充電時間。鑑於我們的目標任務在 10 到 50 英里範圍內，這也是一個非常重要的指標，因為我們試圖最大限度地增加我們的飛機每天可以執行的飛行次數。

This approximately 10-minute charging time means our Midnight aircraft can spend less time and transition on the ground, which should allow for more flights on our routes than if it took much longer to charge. Again, this metric is a key enabler for markets with high customer throughput, such as potential routes from Manhattan to JFK, LaGuardia or Newark.

這大約 10 分鐘的充電時間意味著我們的午夜飛機可以在地面上花費更少的時間和過渡，與充電時間更長的情況相比，這應該可以讓我們的航線上有更多的航班。同樣，該指標是具有高客戶吞吐量市場的關鍵推動因素，例如從曼哈頓到肯尼迪國際機場、拉瓜迪亞或紐瓦克的潛在路線。

Another critical metric that has been supported by Midnight's PER was our aircraft cost. With approximately 50% of the suppliers selected for Midnight's bill of materials, we continue to track to our target cost to build our Midnight aircraft. As we think about unit level economics, hitting this cost target is very important. We have a target business model, ensuring we stay within cost parameters while maintaining rigor around safety and quality is essential. We are well on our way to doing this.

Midnight 的 PER 支持的另一個關鍵指標是我們的飛機成本。在 Midnight 的材料清單中選擇了大約 50% 的供應商，我們將繼續跟踪我們的目標成本來製造我們的 Midnight 飛機。當我們考慮單位層面的經濟學時，達到這個成本目標非常重要。我們有一個目標商業模式，確保我們保持在成本參數範圍內，同時保持嚴格的安全和質量是必不可少的。我們正在努力做到這一點。

As the CFO, I'm very happy with how the team's work getting through PDR has supported some of our top line revenue drivers and aircraft cost targets, providing us greater confidence to achieve our target business model.

作為首席財務官，我對團隊通過 PDR 的工作如何支持我們的一些收入驅動因素和飛機成本目標感到非常高興，這為我們實現目標業務模式提供了更大的信心。

At some point in the future, we will share more detailed information about the specific elements of our target business model and unit level economics so that investors can better understand the key drivers and assumptions around that. We are in a competitive space, and so we are sensitive to sharing too much while at the same time offering greater transparency.

在未來的某個時候，我們將分享有關目標商業模式和單位層面經濟的具體要素的更詳細信息，以便投資者更好地了解關鍵驅動因素和相關假設。我們處於競爭激烈的環境中，因此我們對分享太多內容很敏感，同時提供更大的透明度。

As I discussed on the last call, in parallel to the significant technical and operational progress at Archer, we are making great progress in building a world-class accounting and finance team and implementing critical financial processes to enable the business.

正如我在上次電話會議中所討論的，在 Archer 取得重大技術和運營進步的同時，我們在建立世界一流的會計和財務團隊以及實施關鍵財務流程以支持業務方面取得了巨大進展。

As we advance our commercialization efforts, our accounting and finance team is entrenched with our functional leaders to help make key data-driven decisions. Some examples are working with the supply chain team to ensure that the economics of the supplier agreements we signed support our business plan.

隨著我們推進商業化工作，我們的會計和財務團隊與我們的職能領導緊密合作，以幫助做出關鍵的數據驅動決策。一些例子是與供應鏈團隊合作，以確保我們簽署的供應商協議的經濟性支持我們的業務計劃。

Working with our data science team running financial scenarios for potential initial launch cities and routes and reviewing business cases for capital equipment to be installed in both our low-rate initial production facility and full production scale facility to ensure we are tracking the fully burdened cost targets.

與我們的數據科學團隊合作，為潛在的初始發射城市和路線運行財務方案，並審查將在我們的低速率初始生產設施和全面生產規模設施中安裝的資本設備的商業案例，以確保我們跟踪完全負擔的成本目標.

I continue to stress that Archer is and must continue to be a very fiscally disciplined company and having good decision support capability is a key part of our overall financial and data-driven rigor that helps us to allocate our precious capital in an informed manner.

我繼續強調，Archer 是而且必須繼續成為一家財務紀律嚴明的公司，擁有良好的決策支持能力是我們整體財務和數據驅動嚴謹性的關鍵部分，有助於我們以知情的方式分配寶貴的資本。

Within that context, let's turn to our financial performance for the quarter. We ended the quarter with $654.8 million of cash and cash equivalents on our balance sheet. We used $49.4 million of cash in the quarter. At this cash balance and burn rate, we continue to be one of the most well-capitalized companies in the sector.

在這種情況下，讓我們轉向本季度的財務業績。我們在本季度末的資產負債表上有 6.548 億美元的現金和現金等價物。我們在本季度使用了 4940 萬美元的現金。以這種現金餘額和消耗率，我們仍然是該行業資本最充足的公司之一。

Non-GAAP total operating expenses, which exclude stock-based compensation and warrant expenses were $50 million, which was right at the midpoint of our estimates range. Non-GAAP operating expenses increased sequentially by $10.4 million as expected as we hired more people to staff our engineering programs and build out the requisite general and administrative infrastructure to support the growth of the business.

不包括基於股票的薪酬和認股權證費用的非公認會計原則總運營費用為 5000 萬美元，正好在我們估計範圍的中點。非 GAAP 運營費用按預期連續增加了 1040 萬美元，因為我們僱傭了更多人來為我們的工程項目配備人員並建立必要的一般和行政基礎設施以支持業務增長。

We've also invested in parts and materials for both our Maker demonstrator aircraft and our Midnight production aircraft programs. We incurred a loss on adjusted EBITDA of $49.2 million and the sequential expansion of that loss by $10.1 million relative to Q1 '22 was primarily driven by our increase in non-GAAP operating expenses for the reasons I just mentioned.

我們還為我們的 Maker 演示飛機和 Midnight 生產飛機計劃投資了零件和材料。我們在調整後的 EBITDA 上蒙受了 4,920 萬美元的虧損，而與 22 年第一季度相比，該虧損連續擴大了 1,010 萬美元，主要是由於我剛才提到的原因，我們增加了非公認會計原則的運營費用。

On a GAAP basis, total operating expenses for Q2 '22 were $80.2 million, which included $25.6 million of stock-based compensation, $1.2 million of warrant expenses for our warrants issued to Stellantis and $3.4 million of separation-related expenses for our former co-CEO. These results were at the very low end of our Q2 '22 outlook of $80 million, primarily because of lower stock-based compensation.

按公認會計原則計算，22 年第二季度的總運營費用為 8020 萬美元，其中包括 2560 萬美元的股票薪酬、120 萬美元的我們向 Stellantis 發出的認股權證費用和 340 萬美元的離職相關費用。首席執行官。這些結果處於我們 22 年第二季度 8000 萬美元前景的極低端，主要是因為基於股票的薪酬較低。

Finally, let's look at our Q3 '22 estimates for spending. Now that we've exited our PDR, we will see an uptick in spending to support non-returning development costs related to bring up of Midnight suppliers and increased spending on parts and materials for Midnight aircraft per our plan. We anticipate total GAAP operating expenses of $95 million to $103 million and total non-GAAP operating expenses of $63 million to $71 million. This reflects expected stock-based compensation and warrant expense of approximately $32 million.

最後，讓我們看看我們對 22 年第三季度的支出估計。既然我們已經退出了 PDR，我們將看到支出增加，以支持與培養午夜供應商相關的非回報開發成本，以及根據我們的計劃增加午夜飛機零部件和材料的支出。我們預計 GAAP 總運營費用為 9500 萬美元至 1.03 億美元，非 GAAP 總運營費用為 6300 萬美元至 7100 萬美元。這反映了大約 3200 萬美元的預期股票補償和認股權證費用。

Finally, we will be very active attending a number of conferences, meeting with investors, engaging with the financial community over the course of the coming months. The detailed calendar is available on our website and in our shareholder letter. Investor education on the eVTOL sector as well as Archer's progress and capabilities continues to be one of the primary focuses of our Investor Relations function.

最後，在接下來的幾個月裡，我們將非常積極地參加一些會議，與投資者會面，與金融界進行接觸。詳細的日曆可在我們的網站和股東信中找到。 eVTOL 行業的投資者教育以及 Archer 的進步和能力仍然是我們投資者關係職能的主要關注點之一。

We plan to hold a series of teachings over the coming quarters to educate all stakeholders on key topics for the industry. In summary, Archer continues to be laser-focused on doing what we say we are going to do with respect to our operating and financial goals. Successfully exiting our PDR phase gate milestone has provided us the data and confidence that we can further advance certification and commercialization efforts for Midnight production aircraft.

我們計劃在未來幾個季度舉辦一系列教學，以教育所有利益相關者了解該行業的關鍵主題。總之，Archer 繼續專注於做我們所說的與我們的運營和財務目標相關的事情。成功退出我們的 PDR 階段關口里程碑為我們提供了數據和信心，我們可以進一步推進 Midnight 生產飛機的認證和商業化工作。

Further we are starting to validate many of the critical technical and cost variables that will enable our target business model. Customers see this as well as evidenced by the $10 million pre-delivery payment that we received from United. We continue to execute all of this in a very financially disciplined and informed manner.

此外，我們開始驗證許多能夠實現我們的目標業務模型的關鍵技術和成本變量。客戶看到了這一點，我們從美聯航收到的 1000 萬美元交付前付款也證明了這一點。我們將繼續以非常嚴格的財務紀律和知情的方式執行所有這些工作。

With that, operator, let's open it up for questions.

有了這個，操作員，讓我們打開它來提問。

(Operator Instructions) The first question comes from Edison Yu of Deutsche Bank.

（操作員說明）第一個問題來自德意志銀行的 Edison Yu。

Congratulations on the recent milestones. I have 2 questions. First on the United prepayments. I was wondering if you could provide some sort of roadmap in terms of future pre-delivery payments. And also what kind of milestones will be associated with that?

祝賀最近的里程碑。我有 2 個問題。首先是美聯航的預付款。我想知道您是否可以就未來的交付前付款提供某種路線圖。還有什麼樣的里程碑將與之相關聯？

Edison, this is Adam. And so United gave us $10 million deposit for 100 aircraft. And they did this really because of the confidence that they have in eVTOL as an industry, the team that we've been building and really just the maturity of our technology platform that you've seen since PDR. But I think the other thing that was really important here is that they're securing their spot here in 2025.

愛迪生，這是亞當。所以美聯航給了我們 1000 萬美元的 100 架飛機定金。他們這樣做真的是因為他們對 eVTOL 作為一個行業、我們一直在建立的團隊以及自 PDR 以來您所看到的我們技術平台的成熟度充滿信心。但我認為這裡真正重要的另一件事是他們將在 2025 年確保他們的位置。

And so there's going to be extremely limited supply in the early years of the eVTOL market. So it's really my belief that Archer will be one of, if not the only company in 2025 to have aircraft that you can actually buy and operate in that year. And so given Archer will also be operating aircraft, it's going to be limited in terms of number of supply. So the first 100 aircraft, I think, are going to be really important for the go-to-market strategy.

因此，在 eVTOL 市場的早期，供應將極為有限。因此，我真的相信，Archer 將成為 2025 年唯一一家擁有您可以在該年實際購買和運營的飛機的公司之一。因此，鑑於 Archer 也將運營飛機，因此供應數量將受到限制。因此，我認為前 100 架飛機對於進入市場的戰略非常重要。

Now we are also evaluating different launch markets, different launch scenarios, different routes. So we have formed in -- back in April, the joint eVTOL Advisory Committee, where we were working on operational matters and maintenance matters. And this has allowed us to really start to map out some of those early concepts here of our go-to-market strategy.

現在我們也在評估不同的發射市場、不同的發射場景、不同的路線。因此，我們在 4 月成立了聯合 eVTOL 諮詢委員會，我們在那里處理運營事務和維護事務。這使我們能夠真正開始在我們的上市戰略中製定一些早期概念。

So as that starts to mature further, you will hear more updates and announcements around the different areas we will launch into and ultimately additional planes that will come online. So I think more to come on that. I'll turn it over to Mark to talk about payments and how the deposits work.

因此，隨著它開始進一步成熟，您將聽到更多關於我們將推出的不同領域的更新和公告，以及最終將上線的更多飛機。所以我認為還有更多的事情要做。我將把它交給馬克討論付款和存款如何運作。

I think you can look at the deposits and any future payment milestones sort of on traditional aerospace payment terms. We haven't disclosed those publicly, but you could assume that they'd probably be aligned with manufacturing and then ultimately deploying of the aircraft. So I think it's probably going to be pretty typical of what you see in the market.

我認為您可以查看存款和任何未來的付款里程碑，類似於傳統的航空支付條款。我們尚未公開披露這些信息，但您可以假設它們可能與製造並最終部署飛機保持一致。所以我認為這可能是你在市場上看到的非常典型的情況。

Second question, I wanted to ask about kind of key learnings you've been doing, obviously, ramping up on test flights. Do you have any sort of takeaways that you can maybe share potential improvements or upgrades based on either the test like and also post PDR?

第二個問題，我想問一下你一直在做的關鍵學習，顯然是在試飛中加速。您是否有任何可以分享基於測試之類的潛在改進或升級以及發布 PDR 的外賣？

Hey, Edison. This is Tom. Just kind of answering that in context, right? Maker has always been part of our broader strategy to learn as early as possible about some of the key decisions that we've made with regard to the aircraft that we're carrying forward into the product. So the biggest thing there is the aircraft configuration itself with 12 tilt 6 per pellet configuration. We've been doing a lot of flight testing with Maker over the past couple of months, as Adam said, flying many times per week.

嘿，愛迪生。這是湯姆。只是在上下文中回答，對吧？ Maker 一直是我們更廣泛戰略的一部分，旨在儘早了解我們針對正在推進到產品中的飛機所做的一些關鍵決策。所以最重要的是飛機配置本身，每個顆粒配置有 12 個傾斜 6 個。正如亞當所說，在過去的幾個月裡，我們一直在與 Maker 進行大量飛行測試，每週飛行多次。

And each of those tests is really specifically designed to get us data that we can use to validate key elements of the system. So flight control laws for the vehicle, the broader flight control system as well as the aerodynamic model and other features. All of that data has given us great confidence moving forward with maturing the Midnight design.

而且這些測試中的每一個都是專門為獲取我們可以用來驗證系統關鍵元素的數據而設計的。所以針對飛行器的飛行控制規律、更廣泛的飛行控制系統以及空氣動力學模型等特點。所有這些數據都讓我們充滿信心地推進 Midnight 設計的成熟。

And as you said, we completed our PDR very recently. And essentially, all of those lessons learned have been incorporated. And now we have high confidence that we'll be able to get through our certification and commercialization with as low risk as possible.

正如你所說，我們最近完成了 PDR。基本上，所有這些經驗教訓都已被納入。現在，我們對能夠以盡可能低的風險通過認證和商業化充滿信心。

And if I could just sneak in one more, a very high-level question. Do you worry at all about consumer adoption. I think this sort of UAM world that we're all sort of kind of looking at, what concern that we've heard among investors is, look, this is a -- you're going to need some big changes in kind of the infrastructure, the way we kind of operate. How do you think about just that at a high level?

如果我可以再偷偷講一個，這是一個非常高級的問題。您是否完全擔心消費者的採用。我認為我們都在關注的這種 UAM 世界，我們在投資者中聽到的擔憂是，看，這是一個 - 你將需要一些重大的改變基礎設施，我們的運作方式。您如何看待這一點？

This is Adam. So I think there's 2 kind of perspectives to look at. And the first one is, will consumers want to take the vehicles? And then the second one is kind of the infrastructure that's going to be necessary put in place in order to do that. So what's interesting is that I think one of the early go-to-market strategies is going to be flying from airport to city centers, and those are what we call trunk routes.

這是亞當。所以我認為有兩種觀點可以看。第一個問題是，消費者會想要乘坐這些車輛嗎？然後第二個是為了做到這一點而必須建立的基礎設施。所以有趣的是，我認為早期進入市場的策略之一是從機場飛往市中心，這就是我們所說的干線航線。

And so we already know that there is demand for people to take these routes as we've seen the ride share. So the lifts of the world are showing substantial amounts of demand for these routes. We also know there's a willingness to pay for the same example of using lift. And so I think the demand will be there. And I think the cool factor of these vehicles on top of the convenience product gives will have a lot of early adopters to be attracted to the market.

因此，我們已經知道人們需要乘坐這些路線，因為我們已經看到了乘車份額。因此，世界電梯對這些路線的需求量很大。我們也知道人們願意為使用升降機的相同示例付費。所以我認為需求將會存在。而且我認為這些車輛除了提供便利產品之外的酷炫因素將吸引很多早期採用者進入市場。

If you take that and then you add a brand like United to the vehicle itself, which stands for safety, I think you have a high degree of confidence that there will be a lot of users that want to adopt the products pretty early.

如果你接受它，然後在車輛本身添加一個像 United 一樣的品牌，它代表安全，我認為你很有信心會有很多用戶想要儘早採用這些產品。

The second phase of kind of the question really relates to infrastructure. And so I think what we've seen really over time is demand of products drives the use case of products. And so yes, infrastructure is certainly going to be very challenging. I think that's definitely going to be one of the tricks.

問題的第二階段確實與基礎設施有關。所以我認為隨著時間的推移，我們真正看到的是產品的需求推動了產品的用例。所以是的，基礎設施肯定會非常具有挑戰性。我認為這肯定會成為技巧之一。

We recently just hired a gentleman named Brian Bernhard, who was previously the Head of Global Development at WeWork for the past 9 years. He obviously had to battle through an incredible amount of challenges to stand up as much real estate as WeWork has in the most recent history. And so I am very optimistic that with the right team and with the right amount of demand that we'll see for the product that we will be able to get out there and really start to stand up infrastructure.

我們最近剛剛聘請了一位名叫 Brian Bernhard 的紳士，他曾在過去 9 年中擔任 WeWork 全球發展主管。顯然，他必須克服令人難以置信的挑戰，才能在最近的歷史上與 WeWork 一樣擁有如此多的房地產。因此，我非常樂觀地認為，有了合適的團隊和合適的需求量，我們將能夠看到我們能夠走出去並真正開始建立基礎設施的產品。

My last comment on it is, the early infrastructure that likely gets stood up will be around airports. And so having a partner like United, where when you walk in to talk to the airport and you walk in with a big customer like United, it's a different dynamic. It's a different conversation than if you walk in by yourself. And so I think that gives us a really unique advantage to get to market here.

我對此的最後評論是，可能會建立的早期基礎設施將在機場周圍。所以有一個像美聯航這樣的合作夥伴，當你走進機場與像美聯航這樣的大客戶交談時，這是一種不同的動態。這與你自己走進去是不同的對話。所以我認為這給了我們一個真正獨特的優勢來進入市場。

The next question comes from Savi Syth of Raymond James.

下一個問題來自 Raymond James 的 Savi Syth。

On the supplier side, as you see clear these suppliers, I was curious what type of agreements you're putting in place? And I'm trying to understand what your commitments are to them and vice-versa.

在供應商方面，正如您清楚地看到這些供應商一樣，我很好奇您正在製定什麼類型的協議？我試圖了解您對他們的承諾，反之亦然。

Yes, hello, Savi, this is Tom. So the way we think about the supplier agreements is in the context of securing our first several years of supply essentially. So we're negotiating long-term agreements that support production up to the rates that we've published in some of our previous guidance material. Strategically, we're focused on partnering with aerospace companies to have proven track records of delivering successful certified hardware because that's part of our broader strategy to minimize risk going to market.

是的，你好，薩維，我是湯姆。因此，我們考慮供應商協議的方式基本上是確保我們最初幾年的供應。因此，我們正在協商長期協議，以支持我們在之前的一些指導材料中公佈的生產速度。從戰略上講，我們專注於與航空航天公司合作，以提供成功的認證硬件的可靠記錄，因為這是我們將上市風險降至最低的更廣泛戰略的一部分。

As part of that, we do have some commitments to fund nonrecurring engineering for the development of materials to support us. But what we found is great partners in the supply base who are willing to really partner with us and drive to get these products and ultimately our aircraft to market on the time lines that we're tracking to. So we've been very pleased with the progress on supply chain.

作為其中的一部分，我們確實有一些承諾為非經常性工程提供資金，以開發支持我們的材料。但我們發現供應基地中的優秀合作夥伴願意與我們真正合作並推動這些產品以及最終我們的飛機在我們跟踪的時間線上推向市場。所以我們對供應鏈的進展非常滿意。

And Adam if I might ask -- I know on the last earnings call, you talked about kind of things of the joint advisory committee is looking at, and you mentioned being able to maybe talk about in the future calls about the maybe locations that you're targeting. But -- while it's still early days, I was wondering if you have those conversations and you've gained more confidence with the Midnight, what Midnight can do. Have you had any kind of new learnings in terms of maintenance operations that are different from your earlier thinking?

如果我可以問的話，亞當 - 我知道在上次財報電話會議上，你談到了聯合諮詢委員會正在研究的一些事情，你提到可能會在未來的電話會議上討論你可能會考慮的地點'的目標。但是 - 雖然現在還處於早期階段，但我想知道您是否進行了這些對話，並且您對 Midnight 獲得了更多的信心，Midnight 可以做什麼。在維護操作方面，您是否有任何與您之前想法不同的新知識？

This is Adam. So we have -- the relationship with United, I think, it's pretty special. They're not just an investor or a group that's buying planes. They've dedicated a lot of time to helping us think through different operational matters and go-to-market strategies and maintenance strategies.

這是亞當。所以我們有 - 我認為與曼聯的關係非常特別。他們不僅僅是購買飛機的投資者或團體。他們投入了大量時間來幫助我們思考不同的運營問題以及進入市場的策略和維護策略。

So I'd say somebody at Archer has probably taught myself included, is probably talking to United on if not weekly basis, every other day basis. And so we're pretty deeply integrated with them. They've been very helpful in doing that. So it's an iterative process. It's not like necessarily a big aha moment that you have, but there's a lot of conversations. So we each bring something different to the conversation.

所以我想說，Archer 的某個人可能已經自學了包括自己在內，如果不是每週一次，可能每隔一天就與曼聯交談。所以我們與他們非常深入地融合在一起。他們在這方面非常有幫助。所以這是一個迭代的過程。這不一定是你擁有的一個大的啊哈時刻，但有很多對話。所以我們每個人都會給談話帶來不同的東西。

United obviously operated and serviced vehicles for many, many years, and so they can kind of guide us in some of our decisions that we're making, but also thinking about the way the world is going to work in the future and kind of different strategies allows Archer to help bring something unique to the conversation.

顯然，美聯航運營和服務車輛很多年，因此它們可以指導我們做出一些決定，同時也思考世界未來的運作方式和不同的方式策略允許 Archer 幫助為對話帶來一些獨特的東西。

So the discussions in -- with United have really led to the identification of locations and routes for our go-to-market strategies. And so we are -- the deposits that we announced relating to 100 aircraft are around the high-level conversations we're starting to have against very specific routes. And so those vehicles are being considered against very specific routes and, I think, very attractive go-to-market specific cities. And so we are maturing that strategy with United. And as we continue to mature that, we'll start to give more details here on that.

因此，與美聯航的討論確實導致我們確定了我們的上市戰略的位置和路線。所以我們是——我們宣布的與 100 架飛機有關的存款是圍繞我們開始針對非常具體的航線進行的高層對話。因此，這些車輛被考慮用於非常特定的路線，我認為，非常有吸引力的特定城市的上市。因此，我們正在與曼聯一起完善這一戰略。隨著我們繼續成熟，我們將開始在此處提供更多詳細信息。

Can I clarify Adam, is the plan for Archer to do the maintenance support or is that something that you would get some of your partners to do?

我可以澄清一下亞當，Archer 的計劃是提供維護支持，還是你會讓你的一些合作夥伴來做這件事？

So we're evaluating different strategies there. And so we have spoken with several different parties there, but I think it's a little bit early to give the kind of full understanding of that.

所以我們在那裡評估不同的策略。所以我們已經與那裡的幾個不同的政黨進行了交談，但我認為現在給出全面的理解還為時過早。

The next question is from David Zazula of Barclays.

下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的大衛扎祖拉。

You turned out some really helpful operating metrics that you're planning on for Midnight ultimately, can you confirm that the 100-mile range is with all of these planned flight systems on board as well as the 1,000 pounds. And similarly, for the 10-minute charge time, is that at the end of battery life. Some numbers get thrown around in this industry. So I just want to make sure we're specific in talking the same language.

您最終得出了一些非常有用的運營指標，您計劃在午夜進行，您能否確認 100 英里的航程包含所有這些計劃的飛行系統以及 1,000 磅。同樣，對於 10 分鐘的充電時間，是電池壽命結束時的時間。一些數字在這個行業中被拋出。所以我只是想確保我們在說同一種語言方面是特定的。

This is Adam. I'll give you an open and I'll turn it over to Tom. So going through PDR, we really have to start getting really specific about the design of the vehicle. So it's not theoretical, it's not just drilling. We're actually starting to sign up suppliers. And so the level of fidelity that goes into the engineering is very high. And so we have a very good understanding of where we think the speed range and payload of the vehicle is going to be.

這是亞當。我會給你一個機會，然後我會把它交給湯姆。因此，通過 PDR，我們真的必須開始真正具體地了解車輛的設計。所以這不是理論上的，不僅僅是鑽孔。我們實際上開始與供應商簽約。因此，工程的保真度非常高。因此，我們非常了解我們認為車輛的速度範圍和有效載荷將在哪裡。

And so the main goal that Archer always talks about is our core nominal mission, which is a 20- to 30-mile rapid back-to-back mission where we can carry a pilot plus 4 passengers. And that's what we've been designing around. And so the target payload that we have with that mission is around 1,000 pounds.

因此，Archer 經常談論的主要目標是我們的核心名義任務，這是一個 20 到 30 英里的快速背靠背任務，我們可以搭載一名飛行員和 4 名乘客。這就是我們一直在設計的。因此，我們執行該任務的目標有效載荷約為 1,000 磅。

But that 1,000 pounds also comes with a degree of margin that we built into it. We do expect the vehicle to grow as we go through the certification effort. So that 1,000 pounds has an additional several hundred pounds of margin that we put on top of that. So we feel very comfortable that we will land with a certified vehicle that has 1,000 pounds of payload. I also believe that's going to be industry-leading. And so the reason why that's been so important to us is if you look back in history, payload when it comes to aviation is one of the critical drivers of economic viability. And so we do think the ability to carry at least 3 passengers is core to establishing a profitable long-term business.

但是，這 1,000 磅也伴隨著我們內置的一定程度的利潤。隨著我們通過認證工作，我們確實希望車輛能夠增長。因此，1,000 磅還有另外幾百磅的保證金，我們將其放在上面。因此，我們感到非常舒適，我們將使用具有 1,000 磅有效載荷的經過認證的車輛著陸。我也相信這將是行業領先的。因此，這對我們如此重要的原因是，如果您回顧歷史，就航空而言，有效載荷是經濟可行性的關鍵驅動因素之一。因此，我們確實認為能夠搭載至少 3 名乘客是建立長期盈利業務的核心。

As it relates to range, the kind of the numbers that we've always really thought about have been really focused on how many back-to-back missions can you do. And the Midnight vehicle has been designed to do upwards of around 45 missions back-to-back. Now we don't necessarily model that because that would mean perfect execution every single flight. And so you can take some sort of knockdown number if you think about just the concept of operations around loading and unloading of passengers and people being late and weather and all different types of delays that can come into that.

由於它與射程有關，我們一直真正考慮的那種數字實際上專注於您可以執行多少背靠背任務。午夜飛行器的設計目的是背靠背完成大約 45 次以上的任務。現在我們不一定要對它進行建模，因為這意味著每次飛行都可以完美執行。因此，如果您僅考慮有關裝卸乘客和遲到人員以及天氣以及可能導致的所有不同類型延誤的操作概念，則可以採用某種擊倒數字。

But that's what the vehicle is being designed around. So in order to be able to do that rapid back-to-back missions of 20 to 30 miles, you need to design a vehicle that can go longer than 30 miles because you don't want to sit on the ground charging all the time. So a lot of these numbers can be changed around based on different assumptions that you have. So for example, you can charge faster, but that just comes at the expense of using up your battery life cycles faster.

但這就是車輛的設計理念。因此，為了能夠完成 20 到 30 英里的快速背靠背任務，您需要設計一款可以行駛超過 30 英里的車輛，因為您不想一直坐在地上充電.所以很多這些數字可以根據你的不同假設來改變。例如，您可以更快地充電，但這只是以更快地耗盡電池生命週期為代價。

And so what we've done is looked at the concept operations and thought about a typical day where we might be charging at a higher rate during the peak operations and charging at a lower rate of -- during a slower period of a day where we have a typical charge time of between 10 and 11 minutes throughout the day of our operations. And then I'll turn it over to Tom to talk a little bit more about the range of the vehicle.

因此，我們所做的是查看概念運營並考慮典型的一天，我們可能會在運營高峰期以較高的速度充電，而在一天中較慢的時間段以較低的速度充電在我們運營的一天中，典型的充電時間在 10 到 11 分鐘之間。然後我會把它交給湯姆，讓他多談談車輛的續航里程。

I think you summarized it well. We don't think of maximum range as really a design target for the vehicle as much as the direct operating cost and the real-world use case that I've just described. So putting the numbers into context, right? While it's true the vehicle could fly up to 100 miles with a brand-new battery, in reality, what we care more about is this fast turnaround time, charge time between flights that lets us do tens of flights per day, up to that theoretical maximum amount, mention of 45 flights per day. That's really the driver there. The way we make money is by selling tickets to put as many people as we can in the vehicle and then get the vehicle flying as many times as it can per day. All of that really boils down into our direct operating costs, which we touched on earlier, we're actually coming in better than our internal targets. And that's why we have high confidence we'll be able to go to market with ticket prices that are comparable to existing ride shares, right, in that few bucks per passenger model.

我覺得你總結的很好。我們認為最大續航里程並不像我剛剛描述的直接運營成本和實際使用案例那樣真正成為車輛的設計目標。所以把數字放在上下文中，對吧？雖然這輛車確實可以使用全新的電池飛行 100 英里，但實際上，我們更關心的是這種快速的周轉時間、飛行之間的充電時間，這讓我們每天可以進行數十次飛行，達到理論值最高金額，提及每天 45 個航班。那真的是那裡的司機。我們賺錢的方式是賣票，讓盡可能多的人上車，然後讓車輛每天盡可能多地飛行。所有這些都真正歸結為我們之前提到的直接運營成本，我們實際上比我們的內部目標更好。這就是為什麼我們有很高的信心，我們能夠以與現有乘車份額相當的票價進入市場，對，每個乘客模型只有幾美元。

Tom, can you discuss a little bit the testing program as it's come so far and why you're comfortable being able to talk about range assumptions without having a transition to forward flight yet?

湯姆，你能談談到目前為止的測試計劃嗎？為什麼你可以在沒有過渡到前飛的情況下談論航程假設？

Sure, Absolutely. So as Adam touched on earlier, we completed on Maker the second phase of our flight test campaign. So in that series of tests, we validated the robustness of the design to essentially cross-win landing capabilities because that's another, again, important piece of high utilization and uptime. So we've demonstrated that the vehicle is robust, up to very high crosswind limits. We've been flying sideways backwards up to 15 knots.

當然，絕對。正如 Adam 之前提到的，我們在 Maker 上完成了飛行測試活動的第二階段。因此，在這一系列測試中，我們驗證了設計的穩健性，以實現基本交叉雙贏的著陸能力，因為這是另一個重要的高利用率和正常運行時間。因此，我們已經證明該車輛非常堅固，可以承受非常高的側風極限。我們一直在以 15 節的速度橫向向後飛行。

So that really validates the flight control system as well as the configuration of the aircraft that were coming forward into Midnight. When it comes to validating range though, that's not a primary driver on Maker. We will gather more validation data to support our aerodynamic model, which goes into estimating the drag of the vehicle, et cetera. But really where we get a lot of our confidence for the Midnight aircraft is in ground tests, both on the battery in terms of very extensive cell testing as well as wind-tunnel testing.

因此，這確實驗證了飛行控制系統以及即將進入午夜的飛機的配置。但是，在驗證範圍方面，這並不是 Maker 的主要驅動力。我們將收集更多驗證數據來支持我們的空氣動力學模型，該模型用於估計車輛的阻力等。但真正讓我們對午夜飛機充滿信心的地方在於地面測試，包括非常廣泛的電池測試和風洞測試。

So we've completed some wind tunnel testing already. We are currently building our final high-fidelity models to launch our final wind-tunnel test campaign in the coming months. All of that data will come together to give us even more validation in our performance estimates. But all in all, where we are in the maturity of the design, we're looking really good.

所以我們已經完成了一些風洞測試。我們目前正在構建最終的高保真模型，以便在未來幾個月內啟動最終的風洞測試活動。所有這些數據將匯集在一起，為我們的績效評估提供更多驗證。但總而言之，在我們設計成熟的地方，我們看起來非常好。

And David, this is Adam. Just kind of chiming in here. I think the way that the industry will ultimately be judged will be the economic viability of these vehicles. And I think that's going to be a mix of speed range and payload, meaning how many people can you move, how fast and how much is it going to cost to do that. And so that's ultimately what we're solving for. And that's what we're so excited about here, and that's what the results of the PDR have been so exciting.

大衛，這是亞當。只是在這裡插話。我認為最終判斷該行業的方式將是這些車輛的經濟可行性。而且我認為這將是速度範圍和有效載荷的混合，這意味著您可以移動多少人，移動速度有多快以及這樣做的成本是多少。這就是我們最終要解決的問題。這就是我們在這裡感到非常興奮的地方，這也是 PDR 的結果如此令人興奮的地方。

So that's why we felt very comfortable thinking about the advancement of our commercialization. I think that's what got United very excited about and now to the point where they said, okay, the maturity of this program warrants a deposit, a cash deposit, a significant cash deposit. And so that's kind of the way we think about this. It's not so much just about can you build the fastest, highest flying, farthest flying plane, can you build a vehicle for the mission? And then how do you make that economically viable?

因此，這就是為什麼我們在考慮推進商業化時感到非常自在。我認為這讓曼聯非常興奮，現在他們說，好吧，這個計劃的到期需要一筆存款，一筆現金存款，一筆可觀的現金存款。這就是我們思考這個問題的方式。這不僅僅是你能製造出最快、最高飛行、最遠飛行的飛機，你能製造出完成任務的交通工具嗎？然後你如何使這在經濟上可行？

I guess for Mark, just a tidy clean up on that, based on the extension of your agreement with United, you've disclosed in existing filings about United stake in Archer is unchanged?

我猜對馬克來說，根據你與曼聯的協議延期，你在現有文件中披露的關於曼聯在 Archer 的股份沒有改變的情況，只是對這一點進行了徹底的清理？

I missed the last part. This is Mark. Could you repeat that?

我錯過了最後一部分。這是馬克。你能重複一遍嗎？

United's stake in Archer is unchanged from what you've previously disclosed, their ownership?

曼聯在阿徹的股份與你之前披露的一樣，他們的所有權？

Yes, that's correct.

對，那是正確的。

The next question comes from Andres Sheppard of Cantor Fitzgerald.

下一個問題來自 Cantor Fitzgerald 的 Andres Sheppard。

Congrats on the quarter. I wanted to maybe get a little more clarity on the $10 million announcement that you've made today with United. I guess I'm just trying to understand. So will this eventually be recognized as revenue? And I guess, why now? Why not closer to commercialization or FAA certification? And sorry, maybe the third part of that is where do you anticipate using this additional capital? Is it to fund CapEx, R&D, manufacturing? Just maybe give us some sense as to what the strategy is there and the timing.

祝賀本季度。我想對你今天在曼聯宣布的 1000 萬美元的聲明更清楚一點。我想我只是想了解一下。那麼這最終會被確認為收入嗎？我猜，為什麼是現在？為什麼不更接近商業化或 FAA 認證？抱歉，也許第三部分是您預計將這筆額外資金用於何處？是為資本支出、研發和製造提供資金嗎？也許只是讓我們了解那裡的策略和時機。

Andres, this is Adam. I'll start with the why now, and then I'll turn it over to Mark. So I think this really has to do just back to some of my earlier comments with the confidence that United really has around eVTOL the category, but also Archer specifically. And so I think those are 2 of the really big drivers of this.

安德烈斯，這是亞當。我將從現在開始，然後我將把它交給馬克。所以我認為這真的必須回到我之前的一些評論，因為曼聯確實對 eVTOL 類別有信心，尤其是 Archer。所以我認為這是其中兩個真正重要的驅動因素。

But then the third kind of big driver is we have limited supply. And so if you go back to our stated manufacturing levels, we said we would build 250 planes in 2025, and that's what we're on track to do still. And so Archer is going to be operating vehicles, and then we also have United. There also have been a lot of excitement around orders in the industry. We've seen lots of announcements out there, and Archer has been engaged with many other different groups. And so I think there is this interesting balance here where Archer has matured the program, you could see it in the Maker-flight test, you could see it across PDR.

但是第三大驅動因素是我們的供應有限。因此，如果您回到我們規定的製造水平，我們說我們將在 2025 年製造 250 架飛機，這就是我們仍在做的事情。所以 Archer 將運營車輛，然後我們還有 United。該行業的訂單也引起了很多興奮。我們已經看到了很多公告，Archer 已經與許多其他不同的團體進行了接觸。所以我認為在 Archer 使程序成熟的地方存在這種有趣的平衡，你可以在 Maker-flight 測試中看到它，你可以在 PDR 中看到它。

And then you can see it in a lot of the work that we're doing with United, we're starting to think about the specific routes and concept of operations. And so it made sense for them to commit here to lock in their spot to make sure they will get access to planes in 2025. And as a strong corporate sponsor to Archer as well. And so I think it's a big signal of them doing that now. So I'll turn it over to Mark.

然後你可以在我們與美聯航做的很多工作中看到這一點，我們開始考慮具體的路線和運營概念。因此，他們在這裡承諾鎖定自己的位置以確保他們能夠在 2025 年獲得飛機使用權是有道理的。並且作為 Archer 的強大企業贊助商也是如此。所以我認為這是他們現在這樣做的一個重要信號。所以我會把它交給馬克。

So again, I think you should look at this and because it is what it is, is a standard commercial arrangement. So this is a prepayment or a cash deposit that will hang up on our balance sheet as a cash deposit. And yes, to your question, this would eventually turn to revenue upon delivery of the planes, right? So that's the most simplistic way to think about it. That's how the contract is structured.

再說一次，我認為你應該看看這個，因為它就是這樣，是一個標準的商業安排。因此，這是一筆預付款或現金存款，將作為現金存款掛在我們的資產負債表上。是的，對於你的問題，這最終會在飛機交付後轉化為收入，對嗎？所以這是最簡單的思考方式。這就是合同的結構。

In terms of cash use, I mean, this is going to be for general corporate purposes, which for us is R&D and all of the things we've been talking about for commercialization. It will go towards the advancement of Midnight or go towards CapEx on new factory, et cetera, et cetera.

就現金使用而言，我的意思是，這將用於一般公司目的，對我們來說是研發以及我們一直在談論的所有商業化的事情。它將朝著 Midnight 的發展方向發展，或者朝著新工廠的資本支出方向發展，等等。

Maybe for my follow-up question for Adam. There's been a lot of macro conversations in the industry about -- in regards to certification and the possibility of the FAA's certification somewhat consolidating or mirroring the certification process in Europe, which as you're better aware than we are, is delivered more stringent. I think they have the 10 to the negative 9 degree of safety requirements. I'm wondering -- I would love to get your thoughts. Do you see that consolidation taking place? And if so, what impact, if any, might that have on your certification timeline?

也許是為了我對亞當的後續問題。業內有很多關於認證的宏觀對話，以及 FAA 認證在某種程度上鞏固或反映歐洲認證過程的可能性，正如你比我們更清楚的那樣，交付更加嚴格。我認為他們有 10 到負 9 度的安全要求。我想知道——我很想听聽你的想法。你看到合併發生了嗎？如果是這樣，這會對您的認證時間表產生什麼影響（如果有的話）？

So we are speaking with the FAA at the engineering level on a daily or almost daily basis. And then we're speaking with the FAA at the highest levels as well. And so I have had conversations all the way up to the top with the active administrator and have been reassured the confidence that the FAA will take a leading position in bringing eVTOL to market. And so I don't see anything that tells me today that the FAA is going to back away from their existing stance on bringing eVTOL to market, and I do not see them adopting on behalf of standards. But I'll let Tom chime in as well.

因此，我們每天或幾乎每天都在與 FAA 進行工程層面的交流。然後我們也在最高級別與 FAA 進行交談。因此，我一直與活躍的管理員進行了對話，並確信 FAA 將在將 eVTOL 推向市場方面處於領先地位。所以我今天看不到任何東西告訴我 FAA 將放棄他們現有的將 eVTOL 推向市場的立場，我也沒有看到他們代表標准採用。但我也會讓湯姆插話。

Yes. Just obviously agree with what Adam said, the thing that I could add to is, even since this 2117 A to B change, that is reiterated, we should expect no changes to error administer requirements than I can say over the last few months, that's what we've seen, just reconfirmation of what we had been already designing to. So we don't expect anything to change even they have to make an administrative change to our G1 issue paper, essentially just pointing at 2117 B. And so in that document, we have seen no changes. So just further confirmation that we're on the right path.

是的。顯然同意亞當所說的話，我可以補充的是，即使重複了 2117 A 到 B 的更改，我們應該期望在過去幾個月中不會對錯誤管理要求進行任何更改，那就是我們所看到的，只是對我們已經設計的內容的重新確認。因此，即使他們必須對我們的 G1 議題文件進行管理更改，我們也不希望有任何改變，基本上只是指向 2117 B。因此，在該文件中，我們沒有看到任何更改。因此，只需進一步確認我們走在正確的道路上。

(Operator Instructions) The next question comes from the line of Bill Peterson of JPMorgan.

（操作員說明）下一個問題來自摩根大通的比爾彼得森。

This is Mahima Kakani on for Bill Peterson. Just talking on the United deposit again. As you look ahead to your production, does this put United at the head of the line and potentially ahead of Archer's plan network operations? And then can you also elaborate on your latest thinking on the mix between direct sales as well as the passenger network?

這是比爾·彼得森的 Mahima Kakani。只是再次談論聯合存款。當你展望你的生產時，這是否讓曼聯處於領先地位，並可能領先於阿徹的計劃網絡運營？然後您能否詳細說明一下您對直銷和客運網絡之間的組合的最新想法？

This is Adam. So Archer has always said, the goal is to build a long-term UAM network. And the path to do that is going to require capital and selling planes is a good way to help fund the long-term business. And so as we've said to date, we think 50% of our production, our base case will be sold and 50% of our production will be used.

這是亞當。所以Archer一直說，目標是建立一個長期的UAM網絡。而實現這一目標的途徑將需要資金，而出售飛機是幫助為長期業務提供資金的好方法。正如我們迄今為止所說的，我們認為我們生產的 50%，我們的基本案例將被出售，我們生產的 50% 將被使用。

And so United is a great go-to-market launch partner. And so we're evaluating different scenarios in terms of working together on these markets. But I think the real goal here has to do with finding the best way to get eVTOL to market set up with infrastructure at the core trunk routes from airports to city centers and get all this operational in 2025.

因此，美聯航是一個出色的市場推廣合作夥伴。因此，我們正在評估在這些市場上合作的不同方案。但我認為這裡的真正目標是找到最佳方式，將 eVTOL 推向市場，並在從機場到市中心的核心幹線路線上建立基礎設施，並在 2025 年實現所有這些運營。

We understand that there is a big lift to get there. But again, doing this with large partners, I think, helps make that considerably easier. So the sort of the theme and like kind of the feeling that we've had over the past quarter is this advancement of commercialization is really been exciting. And I think that's what everybody is feeling.

我們知道有一個很大的電梯才能到達那裡。但同樣，我認為與大合作夥伴一起這樣做有助於使這變得容易得多。因此，我們在過去一個季度所擁有的那種主題和類似的感覺是，這種商業化的進步真的令人興奮。我認為這就是每個人的感受。

And it's not just internally at Archer, it's not just at United either, but it's also with some of the local municipalities that we're starting to talk to with some of the strategies around our airports that we've been speaking with. And so there's this kind of momentum that we're all starting to feel. And I think that's what's gotten everybody excited with where we are at today.

不僅在 Archer 內部，也不僅在美聯航，而且還與一些當地市政當局進行了交談，我們開始就我們一直在與之交談的機場周圍的一些策略進行討論。因此，我們都開始感受到這種勢頭。我認為這就是讓每個人都對我們今天所處的位置感到興奮的原因。

Maybe I'll just touch on batteries in terms of certification. We heard from the air current that there's a difference between pouch and cylindrical batteries. So can you share a little bit more on the details on the types of batteries that Archer is using today and then the ones you plan to certify with? And then as you see it today, what are the key risks and challenges as well as areas you all need to convince the regulators that on that the batteries are safe?

也許我會在認證方面談談電池。我們從氣流中聽說，袋裝電池和圓柱形電池是有區別的。那麼，您能否分享更多關於 Archer 目前使用的電池類型以及您計劃與之認證的電池類型的詳細信息？然後，正如您今天所看到的，您需要讓監管機構相信電池是安全的主要風險和挑戰以及您需要哪些領域？

This is Tom. I'll be happy to answer that. So for competitive reasons, we don't want to disclose exactly what batteries we're using. But what I can say is that they're commercially available off-the-shelf cells manufactured by well-established companies. So cells that come with extremely high reliability and the data to back that up.

這是湯姆。我很樂意回答這個問題。因此，出於競爭原因，我們不想確切透露我們正在使用的電池。但我能說的是，它們是由成熟公司生產的市售現成電池。所以電池具有極高的可靠性和支持它的數據。

So our approach has been essentially lower performance in terms of range and energy, but much higher reliability, much higher safety and ease of certification and commercialization. That's the strategy we're taking there. In terms of risks, similarly we way we think about this, the FAA has well-established certification requirements for batteries, right? DO-311A is an accepted needs compliance to get these systems certified, and we've designed to meet that standard.

因此，我們的方法本質上是在範圍和能量方面的性能較低，但可靠性更高、安全性更高、易於認證和商業化。這就是我們正在採取的策略。在風險方面，與我們的想法類似，FAA 對電池有完善的認證要求，對吧？ DO-311A 是獲得這些系統認證的公認需求合規性，我們旨在滿足該標準。

So essentially, we're doing our best to make this as easy as possible for the FAA and just make it not one of the main things that we're worried about are trying to push the envelope on. And the nice thing is we can do that and still achieve all of our commercial targets with the aircraft because that's really what it's all about in of the day.

所以從本質上講，我們正在盡最大努力讓 FAA 盡可能輕鬆地做到這一點，並且讓它不再是我們擔心的主要事情之一，即試圖推動信封。好消息是我們可以做到這一點，並且仍然可以使用飛機實現我們所有的商業目標，因為這就是今天的全部內容。

And if I can add on there, this is Adam, since the beginning, what we've always said as our goal is to find an efficient path to getting to market. Archer has always been about commercialization. And what we did was design an aircraft around a business case, which is these 20 to 30 mile rapid back-to-back missions where we can do multiple of these trips per day.

如果我可以在那裡補充，這就是亞當，從一開始，我們一直說我們的目標是找到一條進入市場的有效途徑。 Archer 一直致力於商業化。我們所做的是圍繞一個商業案例設計一架飛機，即這些 20 到 30 英里的快速背靠背任務，我們每天可以進行多次這樣的旅行。

And then from there is just reduce the risk everywhere, reduce the risk to certification and reduce the risk to mass manufacturing. We've made a lot of decisions around that, and you can see that across a lot of our announcements. So I think that message will be consistent across all parts of the aircraft.

然後從那裡開始降低風險，降低認證風險，降低大規模製造風險。我們已經為此做出了很多決定，您可以在我們的許多公告中看到這一點。因此，我認為該信息將在飛機的所有部分保持一致。

Thank you. There are currently no additional questions registered at this time. So I will pass the conference back over to Adam Goldstein, CEO, for closing remarks.

謝謝你。目前沒有註冊其他問題。因此，我將把會議交還給首席執行官亞當·戈德斯坦 (Adam Goldstein) 做閉幕詞。

Thanks for attending our second quarter call. We are really excited about the progress in advancing our commercialization efforts. The success of Maker flight test campaign, the results of the Midnight PDR and the United Airlines deposits are really strong proof points that we're on track to realize our commercial vision. This is really a generational opportunity. And it's -- now you get to see why I'm so excited, why the team is so excited, come to work every day. Midnight does have the opportunity to transform the world. And I can't wait to share more details with everyone over the coming months.

感謝您參加我們的第二季度電話會議。我們對推進商業化工作取得的進展感到非常興奮。 Maker 試飛活動的成功、Midnight PDR 的結果和聯合航空公司的存款確實有力地證明了我們正在實現我們的商業願景。這確實是一個世代相傳的機會。而且——現在你可以明白為什麼我如此興奮，為什麼團隊如此興奮，每天都來上班。午夜確實有機會改變世界。我迫不及待地想在接下來的幾個月裡與大家分享更多細節。

Thank you.

謝謝你。