Wisk Aero’s 6th Generation Air Taxi Could Be The Future Of Transportation

Meet the latest self-flying, all-electric, four-passenger vertical takeoff and landing air taxi from Wisk Aero, which is also apparently the first-ever candidate for type certification by the FAA of an autonomous eVTOL.

This is the sixth-generation of the company’s long-planned air taxi and represents the best look to date at what the eventual production model will look like.

Wisk Aero is backed by The Boeing Company and Kitty Hawk Corporation and asserts that the eVTOL’s electric powertrain provides it with a 120 knot cruising speed and up to 90 miles (144 km) of range. It has been designed to operate primarily between 2,500 and 4,000 feet, can seat four occupants, and has a near 50-foot wingspan.

Providing Wisk’s 6th Generation aircraft with thrust is a proprietary 12 propeller design that includes tilting propulsion units in front of the wings and fixed lift units aft of the wing, all designed to optimize range, aircraft control, performance, and result in efficient energy management.

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The company notes the aircraft leverages the same technology used by more than 93 per cent of automated pilot functions in current commercial airliners but adds technology with detection and avoidance capabilities, new sensors, Wisk’s decision-making software, and multi-vehicle supervisors that provide human oversight of every flight and have the ability to intervene when needed. The eVTOL is being designed to exceed current aviation safety standards of a one-in-a-billion chance of an accident.

Wisk says it is targeting prices of $3 per passenger per mile for when commercial operations launch.

It probably won’t be quite some time before you’re taking a ride in the air taxi, however. Certification from the Federal Aviation Administration often takes five to nine years to complete and while Wisk Aero has been working with the FAA for three years, company chief executive Gary Gysin told Gizmodo that he still expects certification to take “years.”