Adam Goldstein : Yeah Andreas. This is Adam. So yeah, we are very excited about the partnership that we announced with Rahul Bhatia and InterGlobe. InterGlobe is India’s largest travel conglomerate and it’s the largest owner of Indigo, which is the market-leading airline in India. And I believe the ninth largest airline in the world by passenger volume. Fun fact, the former group CEO of Indigo, of InterGlobe, is actually Mike Whitaker, the new FAA administrator. So I thought that was interesting. InterGlobe is a conglomerate though, that has leadership in aviation, real estate, hospitality, so they really are an ideal partner for us. When we look at these markets, we’re really thinking about markets that have the potential for a very large business, a market where there is regulatory support, and markets that have in-country partners and the potential for also in-country financial support.
And so India has that, and we have that with InterGlobe specifically. And so we thought that was especially compelling. If you look at how other large companies have operated internationally, there’s an interesting parallel that I think that we can draw. So for example, internationally, we will likely share in the ownership of the operations as well. So InterGlobe has a business partnership with UPS, where InterGlobe is the operator in-country. And so I can imagine a similar type of relationship where Archer and InterGlobe have a partnership and there’s shared operations in-country.
Andres Sheppard: Got it. No, that’s super helpful. And thanks for that fun fact. I did not know that myself. Maybe as a follow-up question for you or maybe Tom, regarding the piloted test flights, so it looks like we’re targeting mid-2024 to begin those, I’m curious you know, how do you anticipate that test flight program kind of ramping up? How long would you anticipate that to take until you feel confident enough to enter into service? I’m trying to get a sense of how long will the piloted test flight have to run through until you’re confident enough to enter into service. Is that something that’ll take weeks, months? Just trying to get a better feel for that. Thanks again.
Tom Muniz: Yeah, absolutely. So the first thing to keep in mind there is we need to prove the aircraft is safe to ourselves. And so we’ll do that through an extensive campaign of company flight testing, not just with that first aircraft, but with this fleet of six aircraft that we’re building, and that’ll take months to go through that testing. But then back to the fleet of six conforming aircraft that we mentioned, six is not an arbitrary number there. That’s essentially designed based on our detailed certification flight test campaign, where we go through and plan exactly what tests we need to do, what aircraft we will use for those tests, and essentially mirror the specific configuration and which systems are conformed on which aircraft to achieve the goals in that test campaign. So hard to pin down exactly how long that will all take, but we have a pretty detailed plan. And yeah, we’re excited to start flying with a pilot next year.
Andres Sheppard: Got it. That’s super helpful. Thanks guys. Congrats again on the quarter. I’ll pass it on.
Operator: Our next question is from Edison Yu with Deutsche Bank. Your line is now open.
Edison Yu : Thanks for taking our questions. I just wanted to come back on the six aircraft. Can you give a sense of how much time you need to actually build these things? And also, do you need to have six at once? Does one go up and then one fly and you build another one? Just how to sequence the six aircraft in the timeline?
Adam Goldstein: Sure. So we’ve got parts in production for these first aircraft across our supply base today, and not just for the very first one, but in some cases, parts for the second and third. Those aircraft then, those parts arrive at our facility here in San Jose to be assembled together. And that process obviously takes time. So there will be some parallel manufacturing of those aircraft where we’re doing the assembly of first and second, second and third at the same time, etcetera. But then tying it again back to the flight test plan, the aircraft have very specific objectives. And so we’re mirroring the – you can think of it as maturity or essentially which systems are conformed on each of those aircraft to mirror what we need to accomplish those flight test goals.
So it’ll take us the majority of next year to produce those six aircraft. We don’t need them all at once, but they are staggered essentially in an optimal way to support our flight test campaign.
Edison Yu : Understood. And then unrelated to that, more of a financial question. I know you got the first DoD payment. Can you give us a sense of how that ramps up? Is it essentially, there’s a big payment with the delivery and how that stream kind of comes in?
Mark Mesler : Yeah. Hey Edison. This is Mark. So we are still in the process of working out the specific accounting with some advisors on the accounting treatment and where that actually lands in the P&L geography. But we do anticipate deliverables throughout 2024, and actually in the rest of 2023 and receiving payment for those deliverables. A lot of it was outlined in our shareholder letter around what the bulk of the work will be focused on with respect to 2024, which will be focusing on work with the Air Force on training pilots, specifically using the mobile flight simulator that we’ve just received our first payment for, assessing flight controls, and then really improving the Air Force and the personnel’s understanding of the operational capabilities of the aircraft for future use.
So a lot of that will be delivered, or most of that will be delivered largely next year. Some of that will be delivered later this year as well. So it will be the revenue, or I should say the cash received for those, will be somewhat prorated, you could think about, over the course of the next four to five quarters.
Edison Yu : Great. Thank you.
Operator: Our next question is from David Zazula with Barclays. Your line is now open.
David Zazula : Hey, good afternoon, and thanks for taking my question. I guess, can I ask if you could give any color that you have on the terms of the agreement with BETA? Specifically, is there any revenue stream that would be flowing towards them as part of using the charging infrastructure? And then, I guess, associated with that, with a multimodal solution, do you feel like you’re giving up anything in the way of your recharge time and capability with something that’s more broadly able or do you feel like you’re still at the same ballpark of the numbers you put together two years ago?
Mark Mesler : Yeah sure, happy to talk about that. So in terms of the last part of your question, our operational capabilities, just to be super clear, the path we’ve chosen, aligning with BETA and GAMA and the rest of the industry, absolutely supports our operational goals of turnaround time, fast charging, etcetera. With regard to the first part of your question, and the specific partnership with BETA, we have purchased some equipment for them, specifically around the charging and cooling equipment. Their team’s done a phenomenal job. They’ve made a bunch of great investments in that space. And really, by partnering with them and the rest of the industry, we’re positioned really well to help scale and distribute this aircraft at all these locations around the country, around the world. That’s really the driving force behind it. Does that make sense?
David Zazula : It does, yeah. Thanks very much. And then I guess, a broader one, maybe I’m not sure how much you can talk about it, but there’s certainly been a lot of news about people that are in the electric vehicle business, kind of ramping down expectations you have, having difficulty with supply chains, having difficulty with the IRA, just a general slowing of that business. Is any of that impacting you and your supply chain or any of the materials that you need to be able to ramp up the Archery aircraft in the timeline you’ve specified?
