Wisk and Reward

Wisk Aero, the California-based, Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) concern and wholly-owned Boeing subsidiary, announced on 12 July that its sixth-generation air taxi will make its EAA AirVenture debut in 2023.

Wisk CEO Brian Yutko stated: “Many of our employees are pilots and we have long dreamed of sharing the groundbreaking, innovative work that we’re doing at Oshkosh. This year, we’re fulfilling that dream. We are excited to introduce the Oshkosh community to our sixth-generation air taxi and to share more about how autonomous flight is going to positively change the future of aviation.”

In addition to displaying its eVTOL air taxi at the Wisk chalet, the company’s AirVenture 2023 campaign will see the convening of a special forum addressing the impact of autonomous air taxis on general aviation. The event will be held at Forum Stage 5 on Monday, 24 July from 10:00 to 11:15 CDT.

Unveiled on 03 October 2022, Wisk’s sixth-generation prototype proved 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.

FMI: www.wisk.aero