First Certified Fully-Autonomous PASSENGER Aircraft?!

Behind the Scenes! All access to the future of Autonomous eVTOL Flight! Proudly associated with ForeFlight: www.foreflight.com/flightchops
#Wisk is an independent company, backed by The Boeing Company and Kitty Hawk Corporation. They are a leading Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) company and developer of the world’s first self-flying, all-electric, four-seat #eVTOL #airtaxi. Their flying Uber-alternative will operate autonomously with remote flight monitoring, and will mix into busy airspace at existing airports.
With the announcement today of a Concept of Operations (Con-Ops) for Uncrewed Urban Air Mobility, and it being filed with the FAA, Wisk is making serious progress towards making safe, everyday flight, for everyone, a commercial reality.
In 2010, a team set out to explore the possibilities of electric, vertical takeoff and landing flight. In 2019, that team and its generations of aircraft became Wisk through a joint venture between the Boeing Company and Kitty Hawk Corporation. Since 2010, Wisk has developed six generations of aircraft, resulting in the industry’s largest fleet of AAM eVTOL aircraft, and have completed more than 1600+ test flights without an accident.
In addition to being an investor, Boeing is also a strategic partner to Wisk, providing development, testing, and certification support. Together they are shaping the future of mobility. Wisk’s mission: to make safe, everyday flight a reality for everyone.
Wisk’s Official Reveal Video: • The World's First Auto...
Wisk’s Autonomy Explainer Video: • Autonomy Explained: Wi...
ConOps Press Release: wisk.aero/news/press-release/...
ConOps PDF: wisk.aero/wp-content/uploads/...
Website: www.wisk.aero
Gen 6 Page: www.wisk.aero/aircraft
Autonomy Page: www.wisk.aero/autonomy
Productions like this wouldn't be possible without the help and support of my Patron’s. I want to thank all of you for your ongoing support!
Supporter Exclusive Raw/Uncut version of the Wisk presentation I attended here:
/ autonomous-evtol-72822723
To become a part of the FlightChops’ Patreon crew and gain access to exclusive raw cuts, behind the scenes videos, and more, visit: / flightchops
Follow FlightChops on Twitter:
/ flightchops
Follow FlightChops on Instagram:
/ flightchops
Follow FlightChops on Facebook:
/ flightchops
FlightChops Sponsors & Supporters:
flightchops.com/supporters/
FLIGHT CHOPS DISCLAIMER:
I am a "weekend warrior" private pilot, I fly for fun with no intentions of going commercial. I have had my PPL for over 15 years, but still consider each flight a learning experience - I generally take detailed notes after each flight to remind myself what went well or what I could do to improve.... Having GoPro cameras to record flights like this is invaluable. I find these self analysis videos very helpful in my constant quest to improve, and am happy to share. Feedback is invited; however, please keep it positive.
Visit www.FlightChops.com/ for behind-the-scenes content, epic giveaways and to search episodes by aircraft type!

[@AirSafetyInstitute]

Wow, wild stuff. Thanks for being a GA representative, Steve. We're looking forward to these developments!

[@peteranderson037]

Back about 10 years ago I was a UAV Instructor Operator in the US Army (he humblebragged). I operated (notice I didn't say "flew") the RQ-7B Shadow UAV. That system completely ran on autopilot from launch to recovery, essentially like what you've shown here. While I never had any issues with the automation per se, I swore I would never ride in a system like that as a passenger. I'm not just a curmudgeon, they are stupefyingly easy to operate as so long as things are going well. It's when you need to tell it to make a rapid change that things get complicated, even when using the extra controls on that box they had you blur out. Something that you might do reflexively with a flick of a wrist or a push of a lever required active conscious thought and several seconds of furious action when manipulating the user interface. It would cause you to momentarily lose situational awareness while you frantically tried to get it to perform a very simple but very specific new task. This wasn't something that occurred once in a blue moon, this was a frustration that I just learned to deal with on every single flight. Other people can ride in that all they want to, but I'll stick to Cessnas and Pipers from now on.

[@nameberry220]

parachute handle and 10g helicopter seats. You'll be safe. These will be safer than cars, unless the US keeps sending anti aircraft missiles to Ukraine and the black market continues to be flooded with these weapons.

[@roryfiler214]

I love the tribute to fellow Canadian, Max Headroom (aka Matt Frewer) in the opening sequence. Adds to the overall cool factor of the main subject. Living the dream, you are!

[@JustPlaneSilly]

I recently interviewed for a position at a company called reliable robotics. They are working on pilotless flight as well only they are adding systems to existing planes. Currently they have a 172 and a Caravan that can takeoff, fly, and land with no pilot at the controls. The future is exciting and maybe a touch scary. This will be the norm one day though. Will be interesting to watch it evolve. Also, the Max Headroom thing was awesome!

[@maillouski]

❤

[@ernieszelepcsenyi5710]

Just remember, a handful of years ago the technology behind something as big and as advanced as an Airbus A380 was a very, very far fetched. Yet as I type this comment, FlightAware says that there are 41 of them in the air right now. Today's dream is tomorrow's reality.

[@BoringFlightVids]

Its weird to think we have massive rc planes and it takes robotics companies to basically add servos and actuators to something as mechanical as a 172....seems like a pretty simple endeavor

[@JustPlaneSilly]

@@BoringFlightVids it's the autonomous part that's tricky. ATC gives people directions that they must follow. There are everywhere like engine failures, etc. These things have to be able to select an alternate airport or find a suitable landing space in the event that there's an issue or possibly even make the decision to just crash somewhere safe to avoid a populated area. Collision detection is very important. If I'm heading towards one of these unmanned vehicles in my plane, it needs to be able to detect me so it can deviate because I may not be talking to air traffic control and it certainly won't be. It's a lot.

[@ernieszelepcsenyi5710]

@@BoringFlightVids Yeah-no, it's definitely more complicated than simply getting the thing in the air. There is an entire infrastructure that needs to be created to allow for autonomous aircraft to be operated in domestic airspace for starters.

[@ProfSimonHolland]

fascinating..thanks Steve.

[@adrenalinowner7992]

Very interesting Steve thank you for posting this video..

[@raderjohnson3890]

Good presentation. One thing I haven’t seen addressed, however: what is the issue of liability as it relates to these autonomous systems? If one of these crashes and there are fatalities, who is liable? The flight manager? The aircraft manufacturer? The software developers? There isn’t really a precedent for this. Tesla has the luxury of blaming the “monitoring” person in the front seat when their cars crash into things/people. Also, what will the autonomy be programmed (biased) to protect? Will it be biased toward the occupants or people on the ground? Imagine this thing loses power and must glide down for a forced landing. Two options, land in a crowded park, or ditch in the 100’ trees at 60 kts and kill the occupants… Lots of questions here that need to be figured out BEFORE the lawsuits. Those can bankrupt a company.

[@nincapoo]

I wish more people realized just how important this question is.

[@AlexFeldstein]

Impressive. Thanks and kudos for getting into this place.

[@FlightChops]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@terryfulwider1296]

Seeing that Jim Tighe is involved in this gives me a lot more confidence. Much respect for the work he has done!

[@patrickheavirland3599]

Hello from Minnesota! Really fantastic episode! Incredible technology!

[@maillouski]

I also was thrilled by the Max Headroom segment! Cool artistic flavour!

[@kevintaylor791]

That Max Headroom opening was gold.

[@steelheadplayer]

That took me back , nice nod to the groundbreaking "Max Headroom" character in the intro

[@danielmierop662]

Thank you

[@paulcarstens2601]

This is the first I’ve heard of Wisk. Nice job with breaking news Steve!

[@frankjacoby9460]

As an aviation enthusiast, as a ex-helicopter crew member I don’t care for this approach, though it will open aviation travel to none pilots with tight schedules and help off-set the shortage of qualified pilots. Excellent presentation, complete, logically presented and easy to understand, great video.

[@brianburchart7592]

Beautiful and informative video. Liked the broad system integration discussion.

[@lifegeek5742]

I have so many more questions, like how do they know they’ve hit every edge case? Many incidents that could have been accidents were saved by the pilot’s knowledge of how many systems work together. If they’ve solved this that means they’ve managed to make the autopilot be able to generalize scenarios and have full intra-system knowledge, which is a problem not even huge airliner companies have been able to crack.

[@cavu22]

wow! a peek over the near horizon to see the future of fight. Cool.

[@superpilotish]

Absolutely mind-blowing. With all the rotors, I see a lot of redundancy that I've never seen before on these aircraft. I can tell this will work. The computer and nav tech is there too. This stuff is a total game-changer. Great vid, Steve!👍

[@Ohdub1]

I liked the Max Headroom bit!

[@GunganWorks]

Airbus: Pilots are fallible. We are going to take most of the control away from pilots. Plot twist: Programmers are also fallible.

[@nincapoo]

No joke. This was a really great video but one thing really got my attention. It was when the pilot said something along the lines of "for seeing all of the different scenarios" and "and programming the correct response" so we can trust the computer... I'm sorry, but there has never been a human or a group of humans that has been able to foresee every single possible scenario. Not even close.

[@IdealGrain]

I appreciate the Max Headroom bit.

[@maillouski]

Only thing that I worry about is when they say « we will program every dicey scenario ».

[@LIamaLlama554]

Woo hoo! This will be a boon for aviation safety! Bring it on! My neighborhood to the international airport in 10 minutes? Sign me up.

[@NathanH172]

Very interesting with the entire DFR system, I wonder if it will announce atc coms like garmin autoland.

[@kevintaylor791]

With just a little more range that would be AMAZING, The people of Niagara could finally have a proper link straight across Lake Ontario. The worst part of getting to Toronto from Niagara Falls is that you spend half of your drive, driving AWAY from Toronto because there is giant ass lake in the way. It can probably make it as is, in still air, but it's marginal. It might be a one way trip depending on the wind. They say there will be a hovercraft ferry next year, but I'm skeptical, It's gonna require infrastructure on the Niagara end that does not exist, and as far as I can tell, hasn't begun construction. Best we have now is someone running a light piston twin from YSN to YTZ. A reasonably priced EVTOL ferry, from those 2 airports, 24/7 accessible, would be incredible, and might actually work. Good luck Wisk!

[@dpf1119]

I wonder why for gen 6 they removed pusher propeller in favor of the oscillating props at the fore. Seems like the single pusher is a simple, elegant solution without all the complexities of oscillating prop transition.

[@batakasthedrummer]

As an engineer is awesome how technology is helping us, but as a pilot, it is just terrifying.

[@FlightChops]

I kinda feel the same..? 🤷‍♂️ but I'm not an engineer - so what I am mostly seeing is that it's also awesome.

[@georgewashington9058]

Myself having the same skill set, I feel the same.

[@batakasthedrummer]

@@FlightChops I just hope we mantain at least one human in the cockpit in the near future, i have my worries of future generarions dreaming to be pilots, as today wanting to be a Rockstar, it's just to old, to dead idea. It's been a while since you responded a comment of mine. Last one was when you were flying the TBM. Hahaha. Excuse my awful writing, i'm mexican.

[@21darkster]

The thought of someone from south Florida in one of those scares me.

[@PatagoniaBushPilots]

you have to visit patagonia and fly here !!!!

[@kevinwells4986]

Thanks for the video... (edit.. Thanks FlightChops for all of your videos as well!) Hey Wisk Aero... I moved the beginning of this year from Bonny Doon. You know the company that is there I'm sure who must be your primary competitor. This is the future (the Jetsons realized as I like to say). Meanwhile I'll go look you up and talk to some of my friends about you guys. But I've seen this coming since WSMR duty, and drones used there for... well, other purposes (a long time ago) But of course this is the future. Good luck to you regardless, but I don't envy anyone having to get FAA approved, that's a hurdle. BTW, I know a good electrical engineer who primarily designs circuit cards! He's pretty busy, but I know he will like reading about you guys.

[@AdamShaiken]

Maxxed "FightChops" Headshrooms !!!

[@FlightChops]

YES! I wonder how many people watching are gonna be old enough to get the reference :)

[@SeanAllocca]

@@FlightChops Teenager in the 80's checking in. Loved the reference.

[@morthomer5804]

Yes, but let's hope not. (Max Flight Chops 👍)

[@alessandrostruppa4069]

Did they address anything about power out? Will it land itself on the best available field if an airport is not available? Will it land itself on a runway with no power?

[@WiskAero]

Hi Alessandro! Great questions! We plan to fly pre-planned routes, which will have designated emergency landing sites along each route. Additionally, we've designed the aircraft to meet "10 to the minus 9" safety standards - meaning triplex flight control system architecture, triple redundancy with full hardware/software dissimilarity and no single point of failure. This includes redundancy with the battery packs. While we can't go into detail, the batteries are tolerant to failure. With that in mind, the aircraft continually monitors all of the systems during the flight. In the event of an issue, it will recommend the best course of action and either initiate a landing at one of the predetermined sites, continue on to the destination, or return to the takeoff location. All flights are monitored by a multi-vehicle supervisor on the ground and can override with new commands at any point. Hopefully, this helps answer your questions!

[@-GBD-]

@@WiskAero Very cool stuff! I assume there is a lot of redundancy and security in the comm links?

[@brentgalye2936]

Steve, how long did it take you "I will be dating myself" to put together the animation of SteveMax Headchops... LOL loved it. Great content. Keep the animation for future use. I have to get my aviation fix through you and the KZbin gang. lost my med a few years back and have not been off the ground since. Commercial/Multi/IFR, DC3 (my fave) CV440, B-18 and a whole host of GA Twins and singles both certified and homebuilt. Thanks for your efforts from CYXX

[@FlightChops]

Glad you enjoyed it :) I actually outsourced that work to a film school friend who is a VFX genius. He had me use the 3D scanner function of the latest iPhones to model my head with a few facial expressions, and then he did the rest in a few hours.

[@ben3989]

Seems like a high wing design like this is the only way to go

[@laxplayer99]

oh boy a chance to be a passenger. how exciting.

[@aserta]

Reminds me of what the guys at NASA have been playing with a few years back.

[@farmdwg]

That bus ride was on 101 South through Morgan Hill and Gilroy. Heading out to Hollister eh?

[@FlightChops]

Shhhhh... 🤫🤓

[@farmdwg]

@@FlightChops It's like the worst kept secret in the Bay Area where all of this is going down. 😆

[@FlightChops]

@@farmdwg Haha - fair - but there hadn't been any leaks that I know of, which is impressive.

[@snowblazed3442]

My instructor is one of the test pilots of wisk down here in NZ, but he won't talk much about it :)

[@erik6690]

Iceman!

[@snowblazed3442]

@@erik6690 lol...small world!

[@AndrewFlyGuy]

VERY impressive tech and some really cool footage here, Steve! Still, I think I'll always want a human at the controls with their own skin in the game. Tech failures have been paying my bills for almost a decade. ... also, this tech scares me a little, as a CFII aspiring to fly folks around in jets soon.

[@FlightChops]

Fair feedback here

[@RubyS.1]

With all the "drone delivery" and "air taxi" news the last few years when I started watching was 100% skeptical. But after watching to the end if that team can't get this done everyone else should just quit. Those dudes seem really legit

[@FlightChops]

Right?! That's kinda how I was left feeling as well.

[@gtm624]

Noooooo way. Never get me in an aircraft without controls.

[@MaShcode]

Essentially autonomous systems will be based on video gaming which is to say modeling agent-based computer sims. People, objects, geospatial, and time.

[@mattkaczorowski3099]

Great product, great work. I do believe the folks at this company want to add more to aviation rather than replace. But I'm going to make a bet here that Boeing is very interested in partnering with this company to clear the regulatory hurdles of creating a new category of flight, DFR. Once that door is open, there's no way Boeing isn't going to try to develop a pilotless passenger aircraft. The legal framework for pilotless passenger flight will exist if Wisk succeeds.

[@nickcovington6454]

It’s a slippery slope, you are %100 right.

[@pi.actual]

Being that they haven't been able to make a spellchecker that works yet and my Amazon Alexa will occasionally reply "Hmm..something seems to have gone wrong" I'm not ever gonna be a passenger on one of these things.

[@MonoBrawI]

Reality check here - it's really cool that they've built something that can ostensibly VTOL autonomously (and a neat rotor tilt solution at that). Programmed flight in stable conditions is fairly well understood and robust solutions (autonomous drones) are being developed. You can make a machine which can fly between two helicopter pads, and you can make it pretty good at not landing on top of a waiting passenger. But it's the unforseen events which require vision and intelligence that are truly difficult. In some ways autonomous flight is easier than autonomous driving as the sky is less congested and easier to navigate from point to point. But will this machine know it's caught fire and must land?

[@LIamaLlama554]

Fire seems straightforward to detect, sure. Also passengers will be able to hit an emergency button I suspect , in comms w ground support.

[@bj.roberts6410]

Wow I might to get to fly in Canada 🇨🇦 in my lifetime... me with heart issues.... it's a dream

[@martinrenschler4046]

Takes 320 kW to hover (not even sure if they had dummy weights in it to simulate persons on board). That means within 2 1/2 minutes of hovering, they consume as much energy as the Chevy Volt battery has when full - weighing in at 435 lb.

[@ben3989]

Wouldn’t it burn about 13 kWh in those 2 min?

[@timothyvaher2421]

This Technology Will Work. I believe they've started correctly, and are moving in the right direction. This is an exciting revelation!

[@Aeroworks540]

It better have some crazy safety features

[@ofdlttwo]

Awesome!!!!

[@DavidFekke]

Wow, a range of 25 miles! That is great.

[@HiddenWindshield]

I mean, it _is_ being described as an "air taxi".

[@polyglotengineer]

@@HiddenWindshield The real question is how quickly they can swap the batteries out.

[@Gadget0343]

How many lift fans can fail and still hold a hover? What I do like about this is that there is some redundancy. It still has a wing and can land conventionally I would imagine if needed.

[@WiskAero]

Agreed - we're pretty big fans (no pun intended) of redundancy too! The aircraft is tolerant to 2 rotar failures - and, yes, we can glide.

[@yousef196111]

How good in bad weather

[@AviatorGeek]

Did they say if they can accept vectors from ATC?

[@ernieszelepcsenyi5710]

The proof-of-concept flying vehicle actually looks like a highly modified (and way cooler) Diamond Katana.

[@scottwillson5562]

i missed the range, flight time for these. anyone else catch those?

[@remigiuszbloch]

"the future is now, old man"

[@goatflieg]

Great inside scoop on some frankly scary yet fascinating stuff... said one of the many old men. Interesting that I'm watching this on my own currently very glitchy computer which may be influencing my somewhat cynical view. It seems like technology is creating a whole new faith system into our human existence. We don't have to understand all this technology; we just have to have faith in it. Umm... ok... the future just keeps getting more interesting, I'll say that. On a brighter note, I thought I recognized the mountains in the background; still miss that place.

[@error.418]

Fear comes from ignorance. You are not required to stay ignorant. You are not required to have faith. You don't have to understand, but you can. It's more accessible than ever.

[@goatflieg]

@@error.418 Fear can come from many things besides ignorance, but your points are valid.

[@error.418]

@@goatflieg For sure, just one example. Should have said "Fear can come from ignorance." Fear from trauma is much harder to overcome, for example. Whereas fear from ignorance can sometimes be treated with knowledge. And none of that is to say fear is bad, we use fear to stay alive, to remind us to think before we act. Tempering fear from ignorance with knowledge isn't to make the fear go away, but to allow us to thoughtfully move through it.

[@blainepetsupplies5354]

Seems like these would have a TON of drag

[@GAMarine137]

Being in I.T., I am curious to know more of the tech details. For example, what programming language did they use?

[@selectstriker2]

Much of aviation runs on assembler, C, C++, and some Ada. I'd be curious if they used something newer like Rust and if a lot of their development is done through modelling and then generated automatically.

[@rodmanser7573]

DFR? has the FAA gone nuts? Guess the good news is that these likely don't have the range interfere with normal traffic much.

[@flutetubamorg]

Where's the cup holders?

[@gimbalair4221]

Did i hear "Digital Flight Rules"? Is there a link maybe?

[@FlightChops]

Lots of additional into is linked in the description.

[@dsquare22]

Taking the “human component” out will make air flight many times safer. Can’t wait

[@nincapoo]

I disagree. I often have conversations with others that share your opinion and I find that they often have a bit of survivorship bias in their analysis. It's very easy to look at accident rates and causes and to make a determination that humans are screwing everything up. The missing data in this case (survivorship bias) is all the times that humans successfully keep the machine/computers from fatal mistakes. The short answer is: all the time. You never hear about these events because the flight is successful.

[@dsquare22]

@@nincapoo for some context to my original comment, my sarcasm was from seeing human car drivers acting like idiots on the road. There’s a higher level of training required for aviation vs cars (and therefore it’s not the same comparison). I agree with you that human supervision is required (which Wisk has) but shouldn’t be the main pilot. As they expand, the number of COMPETENT pilots will be depleted, making it difficult maintain safety. Automation is the only way this model will work. And I’m all for it.

[@monostripezebras]

Volocopter is allready certified in europe, I think though.

[@LightoLooto]

I will never get on an unmanned vehicle.

[@Anonymous99997]

Heck with autonomous controls. I want one of these to be able to fly myself.

[@78779]

See and avoid? What happens in class E?

[@FlightChops]

Did you watch the video? In the tests it saw and avoided sooner than humans. I fully understand the general skepticism, but this specific concern is addressed in the video.

[@MickeLang]

So cool to see that companies are working on this. This is the future but it does not mean that the real flying will disappear! Stick and rudder flying will still be available so I do not understand why some people are so negative. When you sit in an airliner which is doing an auto landing nobody says anything. The plane is also landing automatic. And what you can't forget is that this is not using any fossil fuel so the amount of fossil burning fuel travel is also getting less then. Imagine how cool it would be to order a Wisk which takes you from A-B. Uber of the future! Thumbs up from me!

[@christianmaas8934]

I'm worried designers are getting too confident by throwing money at something. We can plan for fully autonomous while managing a hybrid system of pilot and machine.

[@maillouski]

DFR!? Cool? Weird but inevitable I guess.

[@phillipzx3754]

10 months later and no certification (yet) in the U.S.

[@ericandi]

With self-driving cars, like Tesla, on the verge of achieving level 3 and 4 autonomy, I hope more general airplane manufacturers are working on fully autonomous general aviation aircraft. Developing safe, fully autonomous general aviation aircraft is exponentially easier than developing fully autonomous vehicles. Widely varied roads, construction areas, traffic lights, stop signs, roundabouts, intersections, on-ramps, off-ramps, pedestrians, and the million other variables involved with safely operating and navigating a motor vehicle make it far more difficult for a self-driving autonomous vehicle to do reliably and safely than an autonomous aircraft that needs to deal with far fewer variables such as speed, altitude, direction, and weather.

[@wallywally8282]

Whilst it’s technically possible one has to ask do we really need it? Can this fit in with the current normal flight operations without any undue risk ? WX is always an issue with the current flight regime, with no pilot onboard to asses the actual WX conditions at the time is the potential risk worth it? Can’t see this stuff being effective (if ever) for a very long time!

[@samuelwarner9411]

Cool

[@ram64man]

Fatigue on the engine pods will be a real issue there’s a lot of stress put on the craft doing vertical takeoff especially when it transitions I’m still not sold on the idea of there being no pilot, or even remotely we are not ready yet especially when we can’t get cars to go driver free , the last thing I want is to be in a craft 3000ft up plus and a random weather event the ai can’t handle could easily lead to an accident

[@PoasLodge]

Beginning of the end. Very impressive, but .....

[@ruggedwingaviation6063]

I see a KZbin VS coming in the future! Flight hops and Wisk VS Trent Palmer and archer.😂 Would be cool to see them compare at least. Great video can’t wait to see more.

[@gimbalair4221]

Will their flight be considered priority airspace? That meaning man flight must yield to them?

[@FlightChops]

No, humans will not have to yield to these things, and apparently in testing they see and avoid better than human pilots.

[@aileronsintowind6835]

Erm not sure how I feel about a fully autonomous aircraft.

[@FlightChops]

Fully agreed - that is why I was keen to get there and ask the hard questions - they definitely had a lot of good answers...

[@wb6anp]

@@FlightChops How about collision avoidance.

[@FlightChops]

Yeah - they had good answers about collision avoidance. It is a really tight and dense episode, but I got the answers in there.

[@owensparks5013]

So is the intention that the customer owns their own, or do you call one like a taxi, or both?

[@johannnorris6350]

Yeah, just like fly am I Dji s 1000 oh, my groundstation, same kind of behaviour 😂😂😂

[@novicereloader]

I'm thinking of all the Teslas that like to cuddle with Jersey Barriers.

[@tompurvis1261]

How will they avoid gliders, Ultralites, balloons and other low altitude objects. IFR is great for altitudes that you would not find the aforementioned crafts.

[@FlightChops]

did you watch the video?

[@nicko7238]

It's all great on a sunny calm and uneventful day, but I have no idea how this aircraft will react aerodynamically in a bird strike, last moment wind shear or other mishaps. It better take years before the FAA approves this thing...Also, how difficult is it to hack into its computer?

[@ben3989]

It probably reacts better than any human could. Instantly and correctly deciding what to do a million times a second. (I personally am a curmudgeon about this whole industry)

[@LIamaLlama554]

It doesn’t have to be perfect. Just many times better than average human pilot. This is achievable.

[@ronboe6325]

I can only imagine being on the AI and machine learning team; noodling out the intelligence to handle exceptions that get GA planes in trouble (and commercial aircraft to a degree). I don't see this as a threat to pilots; at least private pilots. Commercial pilots (and flight schools!)- that is probably a threat long term.

[@KillerSpud]

Yet another full size multi rotor. One of these companies might just make it work.

[@gtm624]

Let’s all just take a step back and look at this. You have a min of 2 monitors and controllers on the ground. Sooooooo why are they not just pilots flying the airplane and we can eliminate all that unnecessary technology?

[@FlightChops]

Honest question: did you watch the video? What we saw here was a TEST flight. Operationally, when at scale, the plan is to have a single “multi vehicle supervisor”… supervising… multiple vehicles.

[@gtm624]

@@FlightChops I did of course watch it in full. Yea I would imagine that would be the goal. Like what atc does. I just don’t see how taking away the controls and a pilot will make things safer. Not for me but the tech is cool to see. Thanks for taking the time to share it. It was interesting none the less.

[@ksisk94]

Was any design thought given to including an emergency parachute in the top of the aircraft similar to Cirrus? Seems that something like this would really boost user adoption. Particularly for non-pilot customers. As safe as this will be, Wisk and the industry will have to overcome customer perception NOT reality.

[@stephenkeen6044]

It's cool tech, but... TBH, I don't really see the market for this (except perhaps for some rich bigwigs who have to be seen using the latest stuff, even if it's impractical). I do see it making things more complex and less "free" for GA and especially ultralight craft flying in G airspace. Drone regulations are already impinging, with big corporations proposing services using large autonomous drones that again don't really seem practical in the end. Radio control flyers are starting to have to jump through a bunch of hoops just to be able to fly their homemade hobby craft. One safety question I have is what about a power failure in vertical flight / hover mode? Not trying to be negative here, but do we need this? Does it serve a valid need, or are they just doing it "because they can"?

[@owensparks5013]

You don't see a market for people who want to fly but don't have a pilot's licence? There's a pretty big market already for people who want to travel in a car but not drive it themselves...

[@stephenkeen6044]

@@owensparks5013 Well, one difference is that there is infrastructure to allow cars to get to your house (roads). You can't just land one of these things at your house. And there are plenty of ways to fly without having to have a license. I really just don't see what the flight operations model is. Are cities going to have "pickup points" for these things? And how is that any more useful than taking a taxi? I'm all for innovation, but only where it serves a purpose.

[@something7239]

The obsession with safety is going to remove the human factor and sense of adventure from everything :( Desk work it is then. Also shoutout to who ever did that at 0:47 LOL.

[@aaronb8698]

All evtols should be handicap friendly with a easy ramp. All props should be very redundant and inclosed to alow a bumper car affect, so minor contact with other birds or evtols should not disrupt flight. If electric system fails on a thousand evtols at the same time from electric hack, a manual perishut system should be standard to minimize fatalities or even elmenat them before evtol insurance is to expensive. Bad designs could kill the industry before it gets off ground. These are not flighing over Atlantic at 30,000 they will be fighting in dence citys over highly populated areas and all precautions shouldbe taken.

[@goatflieg]

Oh... they have a red phone AND a red stapler? I take back everything I said before.

[@blainepetsupplies5354]

This certainly IS taking away the general aviation community and people who dream of becoming an airline pilot if this becomes the way of the future. It benefits pilots none what soever. How could it? It doesn’t require a pilot

[@FlightChops]

...And it doesn't threaten most existing commercial or general aviation jobs - this is an entirely new category of transport.

[@davidkutran3148]

Hey wisk how about tell us whats the range of this contraption ? Bet its horrible soo go first figure out how to solve that.

[@davidkutran3148]

And whatever little range it does have put it to real life headwind component and you can cut it in half or more

[@blainepetsupplies5354]

Yea let’s go from jet engines back to prop planes for airline transportation

[@FlightChops]

*from fuel burning to all electric. (and this is not airline transport)

[@blainepetsupplies5354]

@@FlightChops it seems to me they were talking about it as a mode of public transportation

[@ppl5052]

As a programmer, I can’t see myself riding in an autonomous car, so being on a deck of one of those with no controls is a nightmare material 😵‍💫

[@error.418]

Probably because the space you're in as a programmer is a very different one from building highly redundant autonomous flight systems.

[@MonoBrawI]

Or maybe he's more aware of the limitations of current ML driven algorithms and how they can end in disaster. See for examples the multiple cases of teslas driving into motorcycles and combine harvesters.

[@error.418]

@@MonoBrawI Uh, no, these aren't operating in the same way nor with the same hardware nor with the same contexts...

[@MonoBrawI]

@@error.418 I believe it's a good example of object recognition failure. There may not be motorcyclists in the skies but birds/drones/cables/etc present no less of a danger. And while radar may be more reliable for spatial awareness it's no silver bullet. Aircraft crashes and collisions tend to be more fatal than ground ones so the stakes are higher.

[@error.418]

@@MonoBrawI Because the stakes are higher, the regulations are also higher. Human pilots also don't dodge birds, and you don't fly at altitudes with drones/cables/etc. They're jut not comparable.

[@SopwithTheCamel]

What is the point? Why would want such a machine?