Wisk lays foundation for uncrewed urban air mobility with updated concept of operations

Wisk Aero issued an update to its previously released Concept of Operations for Uncrewed Urban Air Mobility, jointly developed with The Boeing Company. The ConOps defines an approach to the transition from crewed to uncrewed flight and provides a template for uncrewed, passenger-carrying, urban air mobility operations using highly automated, electric aircraft. The updated document outlines a high-level vision, in parallel with a detailed document, with technology, regulatory, and social recommendations to help make uncrewed UAM a safe reality.

Brian Yutko, CEO of Wisk, commented: “This ConOps defines our vision for autonomous advanced air mobility operations and the addition of uncrewed aircraft into the current aviation ecosystem. It outlines our approach to the aircraft, ground-based supervisors, infrastructure, airspace integration, and more, and provides a template for safe, everyday, autonomous flight.” 

The updates incorporate industry and government stakeholder feedback and reflect changes to align with the recently published FAA UAM ConOps v2.0. The document targets the safe initiation of uncrewed UAM passenger operations in the United States National Airspace System by the end of this decade, while providing a stepping stone to the goal of transitioning to high-throughput operations in the years that follow. It describes the key principles and assumptions for UAM aircraft, the operational environment, and normal operations that rely mostly on existing traffic management concepts.

The ConOps for Urban Air Mobility is the culmination of studies by experts across Boeing, Wisk, Aurora Flight Sciences, Skygrid, and other industry affiliates. Wisk and Boeing released their initial ConOps in September of 2022. You can download the latest version of the ConOps here.