Hot on the heels of the news that Boeing has taken on full ownership of the startup, Wisk Aero unveiled its latest iteration of eVTOL, a Gen 6 prototype that it would use to pursue FAA type certification—already underway—of its autonomous, all-electric aircraft.
Wisk CEO Brian Yutko walked the press through the mock up of the model at the Paris Air Show on Monday morning, giving insight into the progress of the flight test program on the previous prototype—still flying weekly in northern California for various elements of the development process—and how the new model will move forward.
The Gen 6 model features 12 wing-mounted electric powerplants—six fore and six aft, distributed left and right on its fixed wings. The rear-mounted motors provide vertical lift during takeoff and landing, and feather into a standby position during forward flight. During the transition, they turn off and stow, just like on the Gen 5 model—but they are larger to support the four passenger seat cabin. The Gen 6 aircraft has a high wing, rather than the mid wing on the previous aircraft, to ease passenger ingress and egress in the final version.
“That transition from vertical takeoff to flying like an airplane, many people talk about, few people do. We’ve done it over a thousand times. All of the algorithms that have gone into making that a very robust control system—those are the kinds of thinking that will port over to an airplane like this.”
The energy storage system—battery pack array—is housed in the aft fuselage, and the power is distributed to the motors in a way that Yutko could not yet reveal in detail. But he confirmed the system’s redundancy in the event of a power failure of one or more of the batteries within the array.
Wisk has selected Safran Electronics & Defense for its SkyNaute inertial navigation systems as a key supplier to the program. “We are very excited to work with Wisk Aero. We share the same commitments to pushing the boundaries of innovation while maintaining the highest level of safety,” said Franck Saudo, CEO, Safran Electronics & Defense. “By leveraging Safran Electronics & Defense’s cutting-edge inertial technology with SkyNaute, we will provide Wisk with the most advanced solution for their autonomous aircraft.”
Yutko also spoke to the complete backing by the mega OEM: “We think this is actually a differentiating attribute for us in this industry. Boeing has tremendous experience in development programs, engineering technology—and especially in the certification domain. We can receive expertise in those domains to supplement our teams.”
Yutko also doubled down on the program’s commitment to autonomous flight. We do not have a plan B for trying to figure out how you would plug in a computer to fly on board the aircraft,” he said, “or have an optional pilot or any of those things. This venture is absolutely committed to certifying the world’s first autonomous aircraft. There is no backup plan. And we’re very proud to succeed or fail on that mission. We realize that it’s risky. We realize that it’s ambitious, but people should do ambitious things, and we’re doing an ambitious thing.”
The timeline remains loose, and Yutko and the team are happy with that, as it allows for the elasticity of the schedule that’s necessary in a long-term development program seeking to certify something that has yet to be accomplished—autonomous passenger flight.
Looking to do so within the decade–by 2030, perhaps—was the only commitment Yutko would give. The team expects first flight of the new model, currently in production, later this year.
