Wisk Aero has brought airspace automation company SkyGrid under its umbrella as a subsidiary, in a move intended to accelerate autonomous flight integration across the national airspace. The partnership supports Wisk’s ongoing work to type certify its Generation 6 autonomous aircraft with the FAA, and will see SkyGrid provide digital tools to support flight awareness, airspace access and scaled operations.

Wisk is a Boeing subsidiary and SkyGrid will continue to operate with other customers in the ATM and air mobility sectors, while also serving Wisk directly. Both parties say the collaboration is aimed at tackling major autonomy and regulatory hurdles in the advanced air mobility space.

Wisk CEO Sebastien Vigneron says: “To unlock the full potential of advanced air mobility, we must also have advanced airspace. By collaborating with SkyGrid, we're vertically integrating our own aircraft autonomy technologies with its established airspace automation capabilities, accelerating the path to safer, more efficient air travel in the national airspace system.”

SkyGrid CEO Jia Xu adds: “By deploying our comprehensive airspace integration capabilities with Wisk’s autonomous eVTOL technology, we are paving a path to safe, efficient and increasingly autonomous operations for all. Together, we are doing the hard, practical and necessary work to unlock aviation autonomy and digital airspace.”

Joint work will include rule development, testing and operational validation as well as deployment opportunities beyond the US, in line with Wisk’s strategy to scale up demand-driven autonomy solutions.