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Whisk Aero Vehicle company Whisk Aero has filed for type certification with the US Federal Aviation Administration for its four-passenger autonomous air taxi startup.
A type certificate, one of three certifications an aviation company must hold before entering commercial service, means the aircraft must meet all FAA design and safety requirements. In order for Wisk Air to be able to put the taxis into service, it will need to obtain a production approval certificate that is licensed to start production of the Evitol.
In May, Evitol competitor Joby Aviation received an air carrier certificate, helping the startup meet its goal of launching air taxi services by 2024.
Wisk will likely face more hurdles than Jobi in bringing its eVitol to market. Recently shuttered Google co-founder Larry Page’s moonshot company, a joint venture between Boeing and Kitty Hawk, is taking a self-flight-first approach, which Wisk says is key to achieving a broader level of advanced air mobility. (AAM) industry. Therefore, the generation 6 Evitol, which was announced on Monday, is designed to be under the control of people, who will take over the vehicle when necessary, the company said in a statement.
The aircraft design has six front wheels, each with five blades that can be tilted horizontally or vertically. The six rear wheels each have two leaves and are arranged in a vertical position.
In terms of performance, the Whisk Gen 6 aircraft builds on lessons learned from the previous five generations, has a cruising speed of 120 knots, a cruising speed of 90 mph, an altitude of 2,500 to 4,000 feet, and a wingspan of nearly 50 feet. . The vehicle can comfortably carry four passengers with “adequate storage” for luggage and personal carry-on items, the company said.
The internal passenger cabin of the Whisk Aero Generation 6 eVTOL is designed to seat four passengers comfortably and has space for luggage. Image credit: Whisk Aero
The interior is meant to mimic automotive design, with plenty of visibility, comfortable seats and features like Wi-Fi and battery charging.
It’s unclear what Wisk’s go-to-market strategy is, or when passenger testing begins; Wisk did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment. However, in January, when Wisk secured $450 million from Boeing, the company said it intended to operate the industry’s largest AAM fleet in 20 cities within five years of the 6th generation aircraft being certified.
The company says its Gen 6 aircraft is designed to be accessible to everyone and costs $3 per passenger per mile. To put it into perspective, an air taxi flight from a Vertiport — the structure where EVs take off and land — from Lincoln Tunnel in New York City to John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens will set you back about $60 and maybe take. Around seven minutes at a speed of 120 knots.
If Wisk is to be believed, that’s a small price to pay to avoid sitting in an hour of traffic and not paying higher fares with Uber or Lyft.
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