Boeing-backed eVTOL aircraft developer Wisk Aero is building the first example of its full-scale, four-passenger design and expects to unveil it later this year. The company has already conducted more than 1,600 flight tests in the two-seat Cora model on display at this week’s Farnborough Airshow and uses data from exercises in California, New Zealand, and Australia to refine what will be its sixth-generation all-electric aircraft expected to operate on routes of up to around 60 miles.
Unlike most other eVTOL manufacturers, Wisk intends the aircraft to fly autonomously from service entry, with vehicle operators coordinating the movements of multiple vehicles from a ground station. CEO Gary Gysin told AIN he accepts that Wisk won’t be the first to reach the market with its approach, but maintained that autonomous flight is not only necessary for a business model built around flights affordable to all travelers but will also be safer.
Initially, Wisk will operate the air taxi services itself and within five years of achieving type certification aims to conduct around 14 million short flights each year across a network of 20 or so early-adopter cities. Eventually, the company sees the new mode of transportation scaling up globally, and at that point, it would sell fleets of aircraft to other operators.
In January, Boeing invested a further $450 million in its Wisk Aero eVTOL joint venture with Kitty Hawk. That constitutes the U.S. aerospace group’s main involvement in the advanced air mobility sector, while rival Airbus committed last year to develop the four-passenger CityAirbus NextGen eVTOL model.
