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Wisk 6th-gen

Wisk Aero CEO Brian Yutko on the transition to becoming a fully owned Boeing subsidiary

By Alex Scerri | June 7, 2023

Estimated reading time 12 minutes, 3 seconds.

As announced on May 31, Wisk Aero is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Boeing Company after the latter acquired the remaining shares from Kittyhawk Corporation. No further details on the reason and timing of the acquisition were released.

Wisk had already become Boeing’s main foothold in the advanced air mobility (AAM) space, which set up the joint venture with Kittyhawk in 2019, and was bolstered further with the Arlington-based company’s US$450-million investment in Wisk in January 2022.

Vertical reached out to Wisk CEO Brian Yutko for his thoughts on how this new chapter will shape the company’s course into AAM.

Wisk 6th-gen
As announced on May 31, Wisk Aero is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Boeing Company after the latter acquired the remaining shares from Kittyhawk Corporation. Wisk Photo

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Alex Scerri: Brian, can you give us a brief overview of your path to Wisk?

Brian Yutko: I am an engineer with a degree in aerospace, aeronautical, and astronautical engineering from Penn State University and started working at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. I then did a Masters and Ph.D. in aerospace engineering at MIT.

From there, I did academic work and research focusing on fuel efficiency in commercial aviation. Following that, I got involved in a small company, Aurora Flight Sciences, where we started to build rapid prototype autonomous airplanes. We eventually sold the company to Boeing in 2017. I was running the P&L at that time and built a research portfolio in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Eventually, I joined Boeing as the chief technology officer of NeXt, a business unit focused on future mobility. That’s where I got involved in the board of directors at Wisk and recently stepped into the CEO role. It has been awesome journey.

Alex Scerri: What will change and what will remain the same with the new ownership structure?

Brian Yutko: From a practical standpoint, our mission and strategy doesn’t change. We remain focused on our autonomy-first approach. We continue to operate separately from Boeing and still have a board of directors, and our strategy on our Gen. 6 development program remains the same.

We had already been developing the joint venture with Boeing since 2019, so we’ve obviously already been working very closely. In some way, this evolution in our ownership structure will make some of those engagements with Boeing easier and more streamlined and that will be very helpful. Nonetheless, we are an independent company that needs to succeed and deliver on its business plan and targets.

Brian Yutko is the CEO of California-based eVTOL developer Wisk Aero. Wisk Photo

Alex Scerri: Do you have any concerns with moving from the agile startup phase to being under the wings of one of the leading aerospace giants?

Brian Yutko: Agility is certainly something that we want to preserve. Even outside the Boeing context, we have already grown into a mid-size company, increasing our team from a couple dozen, to around 700 people working on the program. Therefore, we have been confronted with the challenge to stay agile from the outset. I would also say that this is an integral part of the Wisk culture.

Alex Scerri: Wisk has always been very clear in its mission that its first aircraft will be a supervised autonomous aircraft. Will this tighter relationship with Boeing change that?

Brian Yutko: We remain absolutely steadfast on going directly to an uncrewed aircraft. There is no backup in the plan and there are no hidden pilot flight controls on board the aircraft. This is how we conceived our aircraft from the start, to meet the safety targets and achieve this milestone in the industry for the first time. It is our differentiator, our value proposition. We will succeed or fail based on our ability to achieve that mission and we have the total support of our shareholder.

Alex Scerri: What are the regulatory gaps to operate an autonomous aircraft in the United States?

Brian Yutko: The path to being able to certify and ultimately move to entry-into-service already exists. We are using certification pathways that are in place to type certify our aircraft under 14 CFR 21.17(b). We think that we’ll be able work our way through that process. Obviously, we’ll need a production certificate but there’s really nothing novel about this airplane from that standpoint.

Then we will need an operations certification approval under 14 CFR Part 135. Waivers and exemptions against that certificate will be required to fly with an uncrewed aircraft. All those processes exist, and they just need to be exercised. Our view is that starting with a clean slate directly with the autonomous approach is the way to go.

Naturally, the regulations can be improved over time. For example, I’d love for there to be specific requirements for subjects like detect and avoid, but as for now, the default is see and avoid. We’ll make the arguments for waivers and exemptions, but we’ll get there over time as an industry.

Alex Scerri: You have published a very detailed concept of operations (CONOPS) document and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has done the same. Do you feel you are in sync with the U.S. regulator’s vision for AAM?

Brian Yutko: We are super encouraged by the FAA’s urban air mobility [UAM] CONOPS. I think that our initial operations will call for initially flying under current IFR [instrument flight rules] flight plans. The ability to get to things like corridors with automated flight rules is really visionary and innovative. It is one of many pathways we could take to get to high-density operations. Our autonomous aircraft approach is made for this, so of course, we love it. We are really going to focus on showing that we can achieve this vision in this decade. It is not some far-off thing in a distant future.

Wisk’s sixth-generation autonomous air taxi has no pilot controls onboard. Wisk Photo

Alex Scerri: The FAA UAM CONOPS document introduces definitions for autonomous aircraft as human-on-the-loop (HOTL) and human-over-the loop (HOVTL). Where would you classify the Gen. 6?

Brian Yutko: Without going into specifics of mapping the definitions, our supervisors on the ground will provide complementary functions to the aircraft and they are expected to take very little action. To give you an example, they will manage the aircraft with a mouse and a keyboard and generally can select from a limited set of options to complement the aircraft’s onboard autonomous functional capabilities.

Alex Scerri: You are planning to display the production-conforming version of Gen 6. at the Paris Air Show in a couple of weeks. Are the specifications still the same as those you had released in October 2022?

Brian Yutko: That’s correct. We will have Gen. 6 in Paris. We’ll be on the flight line in a chalet, and we are really excited to be hosting people to come and see our aircraft. The specifications haven’t changed so it’s still essentially the same airplane with four passengers, with a range just below 100 miles [160 kilometers].

Alex Scerri: Any closing thoughts to share with the AAM community, especially on this closer relationship with Boeing?

Brian Yutko: We’re super excited to continue building on the foundation that has been laid in the 13 to 14 years up to now. It all started with a small team in 2010, and we are now carrying the baton to continue innovating toward the end of this decade and beyond.

The amazing thing is that we have the resources and a world-class team to have a product that we think has a differentiated value in the market. Our approach to autonomy is going to allow us to operate these systems safely at scale. The only thing that’s left is to develop the airplane which we are doing right now by building and testing the Gen. 6. We are really looking forward to showing the airplane to the world when it starts flying.

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