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 in Oshkosh.
The demonstration featured Wisk's Generation 5 technology demonstrator performing various flight maneuvers in near silence, without a pilot on board or any physical ground controls, operated by a single button press.
This public flight aims to validate the readiness of autonomous technology for electric air taxis and will inform the development of Wisk's Generation 6 model, which the company hopes to certify for commercial passenger service by the end of the decade.
Wisk envisions a future with pilotless, rideshare-style air taxis managed by ground-based supervisors, though acknowledging the significant challenge of gaining FAA certification for this novel, fully autonomous technology.

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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.