Becoming ‘The Jetsons’ is getting closer. This is because the American aircraft manufacturer Boeing is planning to launch its first flying cars in 2030 hand in hand with Wisk.
In 2022, Wisk, a Silicon Valley company leading in Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) and developer of the first fully electric autonomous flying taxi in the United States, secured $450 million in financing from The Boeing Company, making it one of the most well-funded AAM companies in the world to start producing these new vehicles.
“This investment will allow for the advancement and development of Wisk’s sixth-generation eVTOL aircraft, the first candidate for certification of an autonomous, fully electric passenger transport aircraft in the United States. The funding will also support the company as it enters into a phase of intensive growth,” Wisk stated after the new alliance.
One year after the negotiation, the Silicon Valley company became the sole property of Boeing. With this favorable scenario, within the five years following the certification of its sixth-generation aircraft, Wisk intends to operate one of the largest eVTOL AAM fleets in the industry. During this period, Wisk anticipates around 14 million annual flights that will save time for more than 40 million people in 20 cities, all with zero emissions.
Date and location of launch
When asked about when the first passengers could fly in these planes, Brian Yutko, Boeing’s Chief Sustainability and Future Mobility Officer, told Aerospace America that “it will be this decade.” The company stated that obtaining the required certifications from the FAA could take between five years and a decade. In this line, Wisk, now owned by Boeing, expects to have autonomous flying taxis in Asia by 2030, seeking to take advantage of the demand for fast and short-distance travel that these vehicles could provide in the congested cities of the region.
While Boeing’s Chief Technology Officer, Todd Citron, revealed a glimpse of the plans to Nikkei newspaper, he did not specify exactly where in Asia Boeing expects to deploy the taxis. He also did not indicate whether Boeing’s Wisk will operate a taxi service directly or if they will sell their planes to companies that will provide transportation services.
However, Nikkei mentioned that in Japan, it is planned for the national startup SkyDrive and the German Volocopter to operate air taxi services in 2025 after the Osaka World Expo.
