Wisk Aero Completes Groundbreaking Air Taxi Demonstration at Oshkosh

The Boeing-owned eVTOL manufacturer showed off its Generation 5 demonstrator to hundreds of attendees at EAA AirVenture.

Jack Daleo

Wednesday, July 26, 2023 at 02:14 PM ET

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Wisk’s four-seater Generation 6 air taxi, which the company is designing for FAA certification. [Courtesy: Wisk Aero]

Key Takeaways:

Wisk Aero, Boeing's air taxi arm, conducted the world's first public demonstration of a fully autonomous, fixed-wing, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxi at EAA AirVenture, featuring its pilotless Generation 5 demonstrator.
The company plans to launch commercial service with its four-seat, autonomous Generation 6 eVTOL by the end of the decade, aiming for a competitive $3 per-mile price point to rival ground-based rideshares and address pilot shortages.
Wisk's autonomous system handles pre-flight checks, navigation, and flight path adjustments, monitored by ground supervisors. However, the novel, fully autonomous nature of the technology presents significant and potentially complex certification challenges with the FAA.

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If you’re one of the 600,000-plus aviation enthusiasts attending EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, this week, you may have witnessed something that has never been seen before.

At the air show Wednesday, Wisk Aero, the air taxi arm of Boeing, flew what it says is the world’s first public demonstration of a fully autonomous, fixed-wing, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxi. The demo featured Wisk’s Generation 5 technology demonstrator, wowing a crowd of hundreds as it hovered, spun, and zipped through the air in near silence.