FeaturedNews

Boeing announces $240 million CAD investment in Quebec aerospace, including $95 million for Wisk and its autonomous eVTOL aircraft

Boe­ing is to invest $240 mil­lion CAD in sev­er­al Québec-based enter­pris­es, which includes $95 mil­lion ded­i­cat­ed to advanc­ing Wisk’s autonomous, four-seater eVTOL air­craft.

The invest­ment, which was announced yes­ter­day (Tues­day), also includes a $110 mil­lion CAD anchor invest­ment for an Aero­space Devel­op­ment Cen­tre in the new Espace Aero Inno­va­tion Zone and a $35 mil­lion CAD invest­ment to advanced land­ing gear research in part­ner­ship with Héroux-Devtek.

Dr. Bren­dan Nel­son AO, Pres­i­dent of Boe­ing Glob­al, said: “Que­bec’s aero­space capa­bil­i­ties are rec­og­nized world­wide, and we are excit­ed to part­ner with the province on new ini­tia­tives that will gen­er­ate cut­ting-edge tech­nolo­gies, dri­ve eco­nom­ic growth and sup­port decar­bon­i­sa­tion of avi­a­tion.”

“These invest­ments serve as a tes­ta­ment to Canada’s avi­a­tion lead­er­ship and exem­pli­fy Boe­ing’s unwa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to the coun­try, where we have been dri­ving inno­va­tion and fos­ter­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion across the nation for over a cen­tu­ry.”

Sebastien Vigneron, Wisk’s Senior Vice Pres­i­dent of Engi­neer­ing and Pro­grams, added: “Boeing’s con­tin­ued sup­port of our Mon­tre­al engi­neer­ing hub is a tes­ta­ment to the impor­tant work we’re already doing here in Cana­da.

“This is a tremen­dous oppor­tu­ni­ty to expand our team, tap fur­ther into the excep­tion­al aero­space tal­ent in Québec, and bring us one step clos­er to mak­ing our mis­sion of bring­ing safe, every­day flight to every­one a real­i­ty.”      

The invest­ments are part of Boeing’s Indus­tri­al and Tech­no­log­i­cal Ben­e­fits com­mit­ment to Cana­da for its selec­tion of Boeing’s P‑8A Posei­don to ful­fill its long-term mul­ti-mis­sion air­craft role. 

Rec­og­niz­ing that Espace Aéro seeks to fos­ter a cul­ture of col­lab­o­ra­tion, with a mis­sion to advance sus­tain­able aero­space in Cana­da, Boe­ing is assess­ing addi­tion­al projects to locate in Espace Aéro, aligned with the zone’s tech­nol­o­gy devel­op­ment pri­or­i­ties of decar­boniza­tion and auton­o­my. 

Hon­ourable François-Philippe Cham­pagne, Canada’s Min­is­ter of Inno­va­tion, Sci­ence and Indus­try, said: “Today’s announce­ment is all about Canada’s eco­nom­ic ben­e­fits pol­i­cy at work. It’s not just about procur­ing Boe­ing’s P‑8 Posei­don.

“With this state-of-the-art Aero­space Devel­op­ment Cen­tre, Cana­da will also ben­e­fit from Boe­ing’s strate­gic invest­ments in lead­ing Cana­di­an firms. Cou­pled with Québec‘s Inno­va­tion Zone, this will attract top-tier indus­try play­ers, cre­at­ing good jobs and count­less oppor­tu­ni­ties.” 

Click here to watch a video of Guil­laume Beauchamp, Wisk’s Senior Direc­tor of Air­craft Devel­op­ment in Mon­tre­al, who spoke to eVTOL Insights’ Exec­u­tive Edi­tor Jason Pritchard at the com­pa­ny’s North Amer­i­can Con­fer­ence ear­li­er this month.

Avatar photo

Jason Pritchard

Jason Pritchard is the Editor of eVTOL Insights. He holds a BA from Leicester's De Montfort University and has worked in Journalism and Public Relations for more than a decade. Outside of work, Jason enjoys playing and watching football and golf. He also has a keen interest in Ancient Egypt.

eVTOL Insights is part of the Industry Insights Group. Registered in the UK. Company No: 14395769