Overview
- At the Farnborough Airshow, the companies publicly showed a shared clean‑sheet hybrid‑electric tiltrotor on July 22, with Anduril presenting the defense variant Thunder and Archer introducing the commercial Halo.
- Anduril says Thunder is a Group 5 autonomous 'loyal wingman' designed for nap‑of‑the‑earth teaming with crewed attack aircraft and can carry modular munitions or counter‑UAS payloads; a first flight is targeted for 2027 with possible low‑rate production around 2029–2030.
- Archer positioned Halo as an uncrewed cargo and logistics tiltrotor built for runway‑independent missions such as offshore resupply, urgent freight and medical delivery, and named Japan’s Marubeni Aerospace as Halo’s launch partner.
- Both variants share a series hybrid‑electric powertrain, dual tiltrotors, modular internal payload bays and collaborative autonomy software that supports formation flying and mission teaming, and the airframe is designed for container transport to ease logistics.
- The announcement pushed Archer shares up about 19–20% as investors priced a defense pivot as a nearer‑term revenue path, but key gaps remain in pricing, named government customers and certification timetables for commercial service.