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Wisk Aero Collaborates with Airservices Australia “to Integrate Autonomous Air Taxi Network into National Airspace”

Wisk Aero announced today it has signed a Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing (MOU) with Airser­vices Aus­tralia (AA), reports a press release.

This gov­ern­ment-owned organ­i­sa­tion pro­vides air traf­fic man­age­ment and asso­ci­at­ed ser­vices for the coun­try. The MOU lays the foun­da­tion for incor­po­rat­ing safe, autonomous air taxi trav­el around Australia’s air­space. 

The region is an impor­tant mar­ket for Wisk’s test­ing and eval­u­a­tion pro­gram as well as for future com­mer­cial ser­vices. In 2022, the eVTOL com­pa­ny  estab­lished an MoU with the Coun­cil of May­ors (SEQ), Australia’s largest region­al local gov­ern­ment advo­ca­cy organ­i­sa­tion, and more recent­ly, Wisk expand­ed its part­ner­ship with Sky­ports Infra­struc­ture to iden­ti­fy an Entry-into-Ser­vice (EIS) net­work for its autonomous air­craft ahead of the Bris­bane 2032 Olympic and Par­a­lympic Games. 

Wisk Aus­tralia Pty Ltd has also been estab­lished recent­ly, to lead the EIS of Wisk in Aus­tralia and to head the engage­ment with Airser­vices under this MOU.

The release explains, “The agree­ment with Airser­vices Aus­tralia under­lines Wisk’s com­mit­ment to the region and ensures that crit­i­cal air­space inte­gra­tion sys­tems will be estab­lished before enter­ing the mar­ket.” 

Specif­i­cal­ly, the MOU estab­lish­es a frame­work for:-

: Eval­u­at­ing ini­tia­tives to incor­po­rate autonomous air mobil­i­ty net­works into Aus­tralia.

: Explor­ing how advanced air mobil­i­ty, par­tic­u­lar­ly uncrewed, remote­ly super­vised air­craft, can be inte­grat­ed into the Aus­tralian nation­al air­space.

: Pro­vid­ing a forum for dis­cus­sion on chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties for devel­op­ment by iden­ti­fy­ing poten­tial projects.

: Col­lab­o­rat­ing and knowl­edge-shar­ing activ­i­ties to improve prac­tices relat­ed to autonomous air mobil­i­ty net­works.

Activ­i­ties expect­ed to be con­duct­ed under this MOU also include work­shops and sim­u­la­tions to under­stand how Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty (AAM) sys­tems and Airser­vices sys­tems will inte­grate into the nation­al air­space.

Cather­ine Mac­Gowan

Cather­ine Mac­Gowan, Wisk’s VP of APAC and Air Oper­a­tions, com­ment­ed, “Aus­tralia has a his­to­ry of avi­a­tion inno­va­tion and a vision for the future that includes advanced air mobil­i­ty. We’re grate­ful to share that vision with Airser­vices, and to con­tribute to an air traf­fic sys­tem that meets the needs of AAM ser­vices so we can bring safe, effi­cient air trav­el to com­mu­ni­ties in this region.”

The release con­tin­ues, “The MOU ben­e­fits from Airser­vices’ lead­er­ship in air­space reform, includ­ing their plans to estab­lish a Flight Infor­ma­tion Man­age­ment Sys­tem (FIMS). The devel­op­ment of a FIMS is crit­i­cal for enhanc­ing safe­ty and for inte­grat­ing AAM into a ful­ly coor­di­nat­ed and seam­less air­space. This inte­grat­ed air­space approach is essen­tial for ensur­ing the safe and effi­cient oper­a­tion of all users, both tra­di­tion­al and emerg­ing.”

AA is tak­ing a lead­ing role in trans­form­ing air­space man­age­ment to accom­mo­date the future of avi­a­tion, includ­ing advanced air mobil­i­ty. Wisk Aus­tralia will col­lab­o­rate close­ly with Airser­vices to explore air­space pro­ce­dures for autonomous air­craft, dig­i­tal flight approvals, and time and tra­jec­to­ry-based oper­a­tions, as well as how these pro­ce­dures will oper­ate with­in new­ly estab­lished ver­ti­port envi­ron­ments. 

The release con­cludes, “Togeth­er, this MoU aims to set stan­dards for the safe and effi­cient inte­gra­tion of AAM into the nation­al air­space sys­tem.”

Back­ground

AA is the Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment-owned organ­i­sa­tion respon­si­ble for the safe­ty of 11 per­cent of the world’s air­space and the pro­vi­sion of avi­a­tion res­cue fire fight­ing ser­vices at the country’s busiest air­ports. It is invest­ing in tech­nolo­gies to posi­tion Aus­tralia at the fore­front of inno­va­tion in the glob­al avi­a­tion indus­try.

For more infor­ma­tion

https://wisk.aero/

(Top image: Wisk Gen 6 eVTOL)

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https://www.airservicesaustralia.com
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