US air taxi start-up Wisk Aero is on the verge of launching a flight-test programme with the first example of its autonomous aircraft, which it plans to use to carry passengers later this decade.
Chief executive Sebastien Vigneron said on 17 June that the California company is “really close” to first flight at its test facility in Hollister, adding that it is “a question of weeks or months”.
”I was with the team last week, and I was not even sure I could make it this week [to Le Bourget] because we’re really deep into safety of flight testing,” he says. “I want us to fly as quickly as we can, but I want us to fly when we are ready because it’s about building the right product with a long-term vision for certification and entry into service.”
The Boeing subsidiary is also assembling a second air taxi that it hopes to get off the ground before year-end.
Wisk has been working for several years to design, test and build a self-flying, all-electric air taxi for urban transportation missions. Though the company has a longer-term vision than competitors opting for piloted designs, Wisk’s technologies are recognised by analysts as relatively mature.
Vigneron says that Wisk’s first aircraft is not a traditional prototype, but rather an aircraft designed to complete the start-up’s flight-test programme and eventually enter into commercial service.
”There’s going to be some changes but it is not a prototype – not from the point of view that we’ve used the rigor and discipline of certification requirements,” he says. Wisk will continue to optimise the aircraft’s design to “make it lighter, make it safer, make it more efficient” as technologies advance.
