Boeing and startup Kitty Hawk have unveiled a joint venture, Wisk, that is developing the Cora two-seat electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) autonomous air taxi. The companies announced a strategic partnership on urban air mobility (UAM) in June. Formed in July and headquartered in Mountain View, California, Wisk is led by GEO Gary Gysin, former president and CEO of Liquid Robotics, the maritime autonomous robot developer acquired by Boeing in 2016.

Boeing and Kitty Hawk Launch eVTOL Joint Venture Wisk

Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft start-up Kitty Hawk formalized its partnership with Boeing late on Monday, announcing the formation of a joint venture called Wisk. The new company is primarily focused on bringing Kitty Hawk’s Cora eVTOL to market, although the partners have yet to confirm a timeline for the program.
The formation of the Wisk joint venture comes just over five months after Boeing and Kitty Hawk announced they would work together on eVTOL developments. No details have been released about the breakdown of equity ownership in Wisk or whether Boeing will be providing further funding for the company.
However, the composition of Wisk’s board suggests that Boeing is the senior partner in a company launched in March 2010 by Google founder Larry Page and v-p Sebastian Thrun. Gary Gysin, president and CEO of Boeing autonomous marine vehicle subsidiary Liquid Robotics, has been appointed president and CEO of Wisk. His fellow directors include Steve Nordlund (Boeing NeXt v-p and general manager), Logan Jones (Boeing Horizon X v-p), David Estrada (chief legal and policy officer of autonomous delivery vehicle developer Nuro), and Thrun (who has been CEO of Kitty Hawk).

Flight testing of Cora—a two-seat, all-electric autonomous aircraft with a range of up to around 60 miles—has been under way in New Zealand since early 2017.