EAA AirVenture 2023 saw Wisk Aero, the California-based, Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) concern and wholly-owned Boeing subsidiary, successfully complete the world’s first public demonstration flight of a fully-autonomous, electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL), fixed-wing air-taxi.
The historic undertaking comprised multiple transitions from hover to wing-borne flight and maneuvers carefully chosen to comprehensively demonstrate the unique capabilities of Wisk’s sixth-generation eVTOL.
Wisk CEO Brian Yutko stated: “We’re proud to demonstrate the autonomous technology behind our self-flying first approach. This demonstration showcases the state of readiness for autonomous technology and electric propulsion. Combined with the progress we’re making on Type Certification for our 6th Generation air-taxi, we’re proving that autonomy is possible and it’s happening today. We look forward to launching the first passenger service on an all-electric, autonomous air taxi within this decade.”
Wisk chief technology officer Jim Tighe added: “We are thrilled to be able to share 13+ years of aviation milestones and now another first with the public. Oshkosh is a particularly fitting milestone venue as it embodies the spirit of passion and innovation at Wisk. We’ve shared something that is really special. For the first time, we have publicly demonstrated fully autonomous flight, conducted by an all-electric, fly-by-wire, vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. There was no pilot on board, no pilot controls in the aircraft, and no stick-and-rudder on the ground. The entire flight was operated with the push of a button.”
Unveiled on 03 October 2022, Wisk’s sixth-generation prototype embodies an elegant synthesis of conventional and avant-garde technologies. The all-electric VTOL contraption attains and sustains flight by dint of a lift + cruise scheme in which its twelve propellers articulate to provide both vertical and horizontal thrust.
Once airborne, the vehicle transitions to forward, wing-borne flight—its six, forward, five-blade tractor propellers providing thrust, and its six, four-blade aft propellers locking into an aerodynamically advantageous, stationary configuration in which the planes of the propellers’ disks lie parallel to the aircraft’s longitudinal axis.
Excepting a preponderance of under-wing booms and propeller assemblies, the architecture of Wisk’s sixth-generation eVTOL is surprisingly unassuming—comprising a single high-mounted, high-aspect-ratio main-wing spanning fifty-feet, and a fuselage that bears a passing resemblance to that of a Sikorsky S-76 helicopter fitted out with a conventional empennage in place of a tail-rotor. A forward baggage compartment—or frunk—is located in the vessel’s nose.
The four-passenger, pilotless machine has an advertised cruise speed of 110-120-knots, and a cruise altitude of 2,500 to four-thousand-feet AGL. Wisk claims the vehicle is capable of traversing ninety-miles on a 15-minute battery-charge.
Unlike remotely piloted aircraft, which are flown by earthbound human pilots, Wisk’s eVTOL operates autonomously. Safety of flight is supported by the selfsame proven technologies that account for more than 93-percent of the automated in-flight functions of modern commercial aircraft. Wisk’s sixth-generation eVTOL utilizes sophisticated detect-and-avoid systems and logic-driven, procedural-based, decision-making software that provides reliable, deterministic outcomes. Notwithstanding the robustness and redundancy of its autonomous capabilities, Wisk’s air-taxis are monitored in perpetuity by multi-vehicle supervisors that provide human oversight of every flight and retain the ability to assume control of the aircraft if necessary.
In stark contrast to sector competitors the likes of Joby, Archer, and Volocopter—each of which seeks to commence commercial production of its respective eVTOL concept in 2025, Wisk intends to bring its eVTOL offering to market sometime before 2030.
With a target per-passenger-mile price of three-dollars, Wisk’s sixth-generation aircraft is designed to democratize flight—at least to a degree consistent with extant technological and economic constraints.
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