Wisk resumes flight testing of its eVTOL air taxi Cora following Covid-19 outbreak

Wisk is to resume flight test­ing of its all-elec­tric self-fly­ing air taxi, Cora, in both the USA and New Zealand.

Flight tests had been tem­porar­i­ly paused due to shel­ter-in-place restric­tions due to Covid-19 and pri­or to the out­break, the com­pa­ny had com­plet­ed more than 1,300 test flights. These expand­ed the flight enve­lope, pro­vid­ed data for mod­el, design, and require­ments updates, and matur­ing pro­ce­dures to oper­ate the air­craft safe­ly and effi­cient­ly.

In an announce­ment made today (Wednes­day), new flight tests will eval­u­ate the per­for­mance of the air­craft in a real world envi­ron­ment, while col­lect­ing data that will help inform the fur­ther devel­op­ment, oper­a­tion, safe­ty fea­tures and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of the air­craft. 

“We are excit­ed to resume test flights fol­low­ing a brief pause due to COVID-19,” said Gary Gysin, CEO of Wisk. “The team’s ded­i­ca­tion over the past few months has allowed us to remain focused on crit­i­cal non-flight areas, such as cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, soft­ware devel­op­ment, and oper­a­tions. This has allowed us to main­tain momen­tum dur­ing this unique time. But it’s awe­some to be fly­ing again.”

Ris­ing like a heli­copter and fly­ing like a plane, Cora is pow­ered by 12 inde­pen­dent lift fans and flies approx­i­mate­ly 1,500ft above ground. It has a range of about 40km, reach­ing a top speed of 160km/h.

Carl Engel, Direc­tor, Flight Test for Wisk, added: “Our first pri­or­i­ty has always been safe­ty, both for our employ­ees and in the devel­op­ment of our air­craft.

“As we return to flight test­ing, we have imple­ment­ed a num­ber of pro­ce­dures and social dis­tanc­ing mea­sures based on best prac­tices and rec­om­men­da­tions from local and nation­al health and gov­ern­ment organ­i­sa­tions.”

Based in the San Fran­cis­co Bay Area and New Zealand, Wisk is an inde­pen­dent com­pa­ny backed by The Boe­ing Com­pa­ny and Kit­ty Hawk.

For more infor­ma­tion about Wisk, vis­it www.wisk.aero