Flying Taxis Are Taking Over This CA Airport Just In Time For The Olympics
Located just a few miles from sprawling, jam-packed Los Angeles International Airport, you’ll find the modest, single-runway Hawthorne Municipal Airport. Despite its small size, Hawthorne Airport, like many locales across Southern California, is laced with aviation history. Once known as Jack Northrop Field, the airport was once the site of Northrop Aircraft Corporation, where some of the company’s most iconic warplanes were built and tested.
Now, a next-generation aviation company is hoping to carry on Hawthorne’s tradition into a new era, making the airport its base of operations and terminal for a high-tech air taxi service that hopes to serve passengers during the upcoming 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games. Archer Aviation, one of two competing companies working to bring flying taxi service to American cities, recently acquired control of Hawthorne Airport for $126 million, planning to turn the historic airfield into a testbed and operational hub.
The Hawthorne announcement comes after Archer signed another deal to become ‘The Official Air Taxi Provider’ of the LA28 Games, where it hopes to demonstrate its advanced flying taxi technology to the world. But before Archer Aviation can do that, it will have to navigate the traffic and regulations of LA’s highly congested airspace.
Taking Hawthorne into a new aviation era
Markus Mainka/Shutterstock
At the core of Archer’s mission is its electric, eVTOL ‘Midnight’ aircraft platform. While the days of all-electric airliners replacing today’s jet fuel-burning flights are far off at best, shorter-range air taxi service has so far shown to be one of the most promising applications for electric aircraft – especially those with VTOL capability. VTOL, of course, describes a traditional, winged aircraft that can take off and land vertically like a helicopter – a crucial ability for an air taxi planning to serve urban areas without needing runways or taxiways. In some ways, private helicopters already serve a market for wealthy VIPs wanting to bypass traffic in urban areas, but a helicopter will be much louder and likely more expensive to operate when compared to an eVTOL like the Midnight.
Archer says the Midnight can carry four passengers (plus a pilot) for trips of 20-50 miles, at speeds up to 150 miles per hour, with minimal recharging time in between flights. The company plans to use the new Hawthorne facility as a hub for its planned LA Air Taxi Network, which would include destinations around the area, including nearby Olympic venues and stadiums, and potentially LA’s larger airports as well.
Can air taxis really work in LA?
During the LA28 Games, Archer plans to use its air taxis to quickly transport fans, VIPs, and stakeholders to different venues across the city – and the Olympics are sure to bring increased traffic and crowds to a city that’s already notoriously gridlocked. A potential problem for air taxi service, though, is that LA’s skies are often just as congested as its freeways.
Given Hawthorne Airport’s close proximity to LAX and its endless parade of commercial flights, Archer’s aircraft would be operating inside of a very crowded, tightly controlled airspace. In the skies around LAX, smaller private aircraft, as well as law enforcement and news helicopters, already navigate a tightrope act around commercial flight patterns, even at low altitudes. Throwing regular flights of air taxis into the mix would only make things that much busier.
Time will tell whether eVTOL air taxis like the Midnight can indeed replace helicopters for VIP travelers and hopefully democratize short-distance air travel for a wider customer base. If Archer Aviation proves it can safely and efficiently operate its air taxis in LA’s crowded skies, short-distance air travel has the potential to be a game-changer for Southern California transportation, both for the 2028 Olympics, and beyond.
