FARNBOROUGH—Wisk Aero says it is giving consideration toward the fledgling aftermarket for its fully automated electric aircraft, although some of the MRO opportunity will be constrained by its intentional design limiting the aircraft’s number of systems.
The Boeing-owned advanced air mobility startup’s electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) aircraft is currently in the early stages of an FAA certification program with a target to enter service later in the decade.
“We’ve started to think about [the aftermarket] and we’ve started to work with some potential partners in that space,” CEO Brian Yutko told a press briefing at the Farnborough Airshow on July 22. “These aircraft are intended to do more flight cycles than a commercial aircraft and more frequently, so that turns into interesting opportunities for some life-limited parts,” he says.
Yutko says a lot of focus has already been given to the aircraft’s batteries. “It’s a lot of the value of the aircraft and it’s a lot of the depreciation cost of the aircraft. But there are other moving parts of the aircraft that matter.”
Wisk says the aircraft was designed with the intention of having a limited number of systems. For example, it opted for skids in place of wheels. “It’s an entirely electrical aircraft so there’s no hydraulics or pneumatics on there, and that dramatically limits the scope of the MRO opportunity,” he says.
Last year, Wisk was acquired by Boeing and now operates as a fully owned subsidiary of the airframe OEM with a team of around 800 people. In turn, Wisk has also announced several partnerships, including the acquisition last month of Verocel, a developer of high-integrity software development and certification.
Most recently, Wisk announced plans to expand on an existing agreement with Skyports Infrastructure to develop a vertiport network for commercial air taxi services in Southeast Queensland, Australia, including the city of Brisbane. Yutko cites the 2032 Olympic Games being held in Brisbane and the region’s growing population as an opportunity for Wisk.
The Brisbane partnership follows last month’s memorandum of understanding with Houston Airports, which aims to establish vertiports at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, William P. Hobby Airport and Ellington Airport in the Texas city.
Further afield, Yutko hints that Wisk is exploring other regions across the world. “There’s hardly a region we haven’t looked at,” he says. “But we’ve tried to be very measured in where we make commitments.”
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