Wisk Aero

Wisk Aero

Wisk Aero is a US eVTOL company developing an autonomous, pilotless four-seat air taxi. It was created in 2019 as a joint venture between Boeing and Kitty Hawk, the Larry Page-backed aviation startup, and became wholly owned by Boeing after Kitty Hawk wound down. It is pursuing FAA type certification for a fully autonomous passenger aircraft, with no pilot on board — a harder certification path than any of its piloted competitors face.

Pending Sale to Archer Aviation

In August 2026 Boeing agreed to sell Wisk, along with the drone maker Insitu and the air-traffic software company SkyGrid, to Archer Aviation. Boeing is taking payment in shares rather than cash: it will hold 19.75 percent of Archer’s Class A shares, with options to buy more over the following four years, and has agreed to invest up to a further $55 million in Archer’s next funding round at any time before 31 March 2027.

The two companies also agreed a technology-sharing arrangement that lets Boeing continue to use Wisk’s autonomous-flight technology in its own commercial and defense aircraft programmes. Archer will own the Wisk intellectual property once the deal closes, which is expected by the end of 2026. Until it closes this remains an announced transaction, not a completed one.

Key Products

Generation 6 — The production-intent autonomous air taxi, announced in 2023 and the vehicle targeting type certification.

Cora — The earlier twelve-rotor autonomous demonstrator with a pusher propeller for forward flight, used for flight testing and certification development work.

Business and Funding

Wisk is private and pre-commercial, with no reported revenue. Its funding has come predominantly from Boeing, which committed an additional $450 million in 2022.

Why It Matters

Wisk has been the only well-funded US eVTOL developer committed to fully autonomous commercial passenger operations as its route to market rather than as a later upgrade. That choice defines the company: autonomous passenger certification is genuinely uncharted regulatory territory, and a Wisk certification would set the precedent for the whole category.

The sale changes who carries that risk. Under Boeing, Wisk had a parent with effectively unlimited patience and a strategic reason to fund it. Under Archer it becomes part of a listed company that is itself pre-revenue and pursuing its own piloted aircraft to certification first. Whether Archer sustains the same commitment to a harder, slower autonomous programme alongside its own is the open question, and the one worth following after the deal closes.