How Archer Aviation Accelerated Aircraft Validation Through an Integrated Simulation Platform
The rapid growth of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft is transforming the future of aviation. However, developing these next-generation aircraft introduces significant engineering challenges. Multiple electrical, mechanical, and software subsystems must work together flawlessly while meeting the industry’s stringent safety and reliability requirements.
For Archer Aviation, one of the leading innovators in eVTOL technology, achieving this level of integration required more than traditional testing methods. The engineering team needed a scalable simulation platform capable of supporting component-level verification, subsystem integration, and full aircraft validation within an aggressive development timeline.
The Challenge
As development progressed, different engineering teams were designing batteries, propulsion systems, flight controllers, avionics, and communication systems simultaneously. Each subsystem required independent validation while remaining compatible with the complete aircraft architecture.
The integrated test team faced several key objectives:
- Simulate complete aircraft operating conditions
- Monitor hundreds of electrical signals and communication buses
- Inject faults safely into the system
- Support both simulated and real hardware configurations
- Deliver an integrated test platform within a limited project schedule
Meeting these requirements demanded a flexible, modular, and highly deterministic testing environment capable of evolving alongside the aircraft development program.
Building an Integrated Test Environment
Building an Integrated Test Environment
To address these challenges, Archer Aviation developed a modular simulation platform that enabled engineers to validate aircraft systems long before flight testing.
The solution supported multiple stages of development, from individual subsystem verification to fully integrated aircraft testing, allowing engineering teams to identify issues earlier and accelerate design iterations.
The platform also enabled engineers to:
- Simulate realistic flight conditions
- Switch seamlessly between physical and simulated hardware
- Inject failures for safety validation
- Monitor aircraft communication networks
- Automate testing across multiple development stages
This approach significantly reduced dependence on physical prototypes while improving testing efficiency and repeatability.
Delivering Results Under Tight Deadlines
One of the most significant challenges was time. The integrated test platform had to be designed, assembled, commissioned, and deployed within a compressed development schedule while supporting multiple engineering teams working in parallel. Through its modular architecture, Archer successfully established:
- Three fully integrated laboratories
- Six Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) benches
- Multiple mechanical test rigs
- Operational test systems delivered within approximately three months
The scalable architecture also allowed the engineering team to continue expanding and refining the platform as aircraft requirements evolved throughout development.
The Technology Behind the Platform
A key element of Archer’s integrated testing environment was the use of NI VeriStand as the real-time software platform for simulation and validation. Working alongside Simulink® models and NI modular hardware, VeriStand enabled engineers to configure real-time simulations, automate test execution, perform data logging, and execute deterministic
Hardware-in-the-Loop testing without requiring extensive custom software development. Rather than serving as the focus of the project, VeriStand functioned as one of the enabling technologies that supported Archer’s broader objective of building a scalable, integrated aircraft validation platform.
Engineering Insight
The Archer Aviation project demonstrates how a modular simulation strategy can help engineering organizations validate increasingly complex embedded systems more efficiently. By combining real-time simulation, automated testing, and scalable Hardware-in-the-Loop architectures, engineering teams can reduce development risk, improve testing coverage, and accelerate innovation without compromising safety.
Interested in building scalable real-time validation systems for your own engineering projects?
Explore how NI VeriStand supports Hardware-in-the-Loop testing, real-time simulation, and automated validation for aerospace, automotive, industrial, and research applications.
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