Wisk Rolls Out Second Gen 6 Autonomous eVTOL Prototype

Wisk Aero has rolled out the second flight-test example of its sixth-generation autonomous eVTOL aircraft. The full-scale prototype, registered as N607WA, is expected to make its first flight in the coming weeks. The Boeing subsidiary said it remains on track to bring the pilotless, four-passenger electric air taxi into commercial service by 2030. 

Following the first flights of the original Gen 6 prototype (N606WA) in December, Wisk engineers made some minor refinements to the aircraft’s design, incorporating lessons learned from those early flight tests. Updates to the aircraft were primarily aimed at “weight saving in certain areas and improved stiffnesses in others,” Guillaume Beauchamp, Wisk’s head of aircraft development, told AIN. 

Beauchamp said the weight-saving measures were not aimed at boosting the aircraft’s range or addressing the FAA’s new energy reserve requirements. Rather, they were intended to preserve margin on a heavily instrumented test aircraft that must also carry ballast weights to explore multiple loading and center-of-gravity conditions across the flight envelope.

A Leaner Prototype 

As with many flight-test programs, early prototypes carry extensive instrumentation, Beauchamp explained. “Your first few planes are always heavily instrumented, so you have all that additional weight that you're carrying with the instrumentation, and you also want to make sure that you can cover the whole test envelope,” he said. “We wanted to save some weight so that we can actually make sure we can hit all the different corners of the test.”

While he declined to quantify the weight savings or specify which parts of the aircraft were modified, photos shared exclusively with AIN suggest subtle external differences around the six aft propellers.

The earlier prototype features aerodynamic fairings around the rear pylons—the structures connecting the propellers to the wing booms—while the newer aircraft appears to have those pylons more exposed.

On the Gen 6 aircraft, those six four-blade aft propellers provide vertical lift and remain fixed in position. Another set of six five-blade propellers mounted along the wing’s leading edge can tilt to provide both vertical lift and forward thrust, enabling the aircraft to transition between hover and wingborne cruise.

Transition Testing Ahead

California-based Wisk expects to achieve a transition flight in tests with the Gen 6 aircraft this year. Beauchamp did not specify whether N606WA or N607WA would be the first to notch this milestone, but he noted that the two aircraft are intended to be interchangeable for flight-testing purposes. “If we ever have an issue with one, the other one has the same instrumentation. It’s built so that it can do the same mission,” he said.

So far, N606WA has completed at least 10 flights, and it will remain active in the flight-test campaign after N607WA enters the scene.

Beauchamp confirmed that a third Gen 6 prototype will eventually join the flight-test fleet, though he declined to say how many aircraft Wisk expects to build before FAA type certification or how many will be dedicated to type inspection authorization (TIA) testing. He characterized the current aircraft as effectively “company conforming,” meaning they are built to Wisk’s design and quality system but not yet to the additional oversight and documentation required for FAA-conforming aircraft.

The sixth-generation aircraft is the configuration Wisk intends to certify with the FAA and bring into commercial service. Before the Gen 6 program, Wisk conducted extensive flight testing with earlier prototypes developed under the Kitty Hawk Cora program. The fifth-generation aircraft completed hundreds of flights to validate Wisk’s distributed electric propulsion architecture and autonomous flight concepts.

Wisk has been working with the FAA on certification requirements for pilotless operations and previously coordinated with regulators in New Zealand during earlier flight-testing campaigns. Wisk’s relationship with Boeing, which formally acquired the start-up in 2023, provides access to valuable engineering resources and certification experience.

Originally unveiled in 2022 with a cabin mockup, the Gen 6 aircraft is designed to cruise at about 120 knots, with a range of roughly 90 miles including reserves, a maximum takeoff weight of about 5,400 pounds, and a payload capacity of around 900 pounds—enough for four passengers with light luggage.