Wisk Aero has completed and opened its vertiport at Hollister Municipal Airport in California. The site is one of the first public, on-airport vertiports in the US to support both piloted and autonomous operations.

Construction began with a groundbreaking in August 2026. Located adjacent to Wisk’s existing flight test facilities, the 100ft by 100ft vertiport serves as a dedicated testbed for terminal area procedures, precision landing evaluation and approach and departure profile validation.

Built to existing FAA vertiport standards using elevated steel structures, integrated solar panels, power banks and taxiway connectors, the modular, deployable facility can be easily adapted to future flight testing sites. The relocatable template will be used for future eIPP flight testing in Texas.

Wisk-developed transceivers installed directly on the pad enable high-precision navigation testing under reduced- and zero-visibility conditions across all VTOL platforms, including helicopters, other eVTOLs and Wisk’s Generation 6 aircraft. Initial flight operations with surrogate helicopters will be followed by autonomy testing, evaluating terminal-area manoeuvres, nominal landings, missed approaches and precision touch-downs in GPS-denied environments.

Sebastien Vigneron, CEO of Wisk, says: “Deploying our aircraft on a purpose-built vertiport gives us the exact physical setup needed to validate precision landing technologies and our complete autonomy stack.”

Operational data gathered at the site will feed into the FAA’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP) and the ongoing refinement of the FAA Vertical Lift Infrastructure Advisory Circular, supporting certification efforts and best practices for safe, scalable vertiport integration across the US.

Jeff Crechriou, executive director of Hollister Municipal Airport, adds: “Hosting one of the nation’s first on-airport vertiports capable of supporting both piloted and autonomous operations puts Hollister at the forefront of advanced air mobility (AAM).”

The vertiport also serves as a key infrastructure anchor for the California Advanced Air Mobility Corridors Initiative (CAAMCI). Led by the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership (MBEP), the initiative aims to establish an FAA-compliant, multi-airport flight corridor connecting public airports across the Central Coast.

Wisk marked the opening with an official ribbon cutting ceremony at its Hollister facility on 29 October 2026. Local, state and federal government officials, airport leadership and other partners attended. Construction and commissioning involved Hollister Municipal Airport, the City of Hollister, the Airport Advisory Commission, Caltrans, the FAA Local Airport District Office (ADO) and the FAA Office of Airports.