Airservices Australia announced today that they have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Wisk Aero to share expertise on advanced air mobility (AAM) systems.
Wisk is developing an all-electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft designed to be operated as an air taxi, targeting operations at the 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games.
As part of this MOU, Airservices will run a series of workshops and simulations aimed at gaining an understanding of how AAM technology will integrate with Airservices' systems and the national airspace architecture.
“Airservices will share its air navigation technical engineering and air traffic management expertise to support design, development, and validation of air taxi operations concepts in Australia,” said Airservices Interim CEO Rob Sharp.
“The mutual benefit of this knowledge-sharing arrangement is it will help both organisations better understand industry needs and challenges and collaborate on strategies to ensure the safe and sustainable use of Australian airspace.
“This non-exclusive MOU is an example of Airservices’ commitment to working with industry to develop solutions that will enable emerging technologies to transform connectivity over short distances for a range of applications, including travel and emergency response.”
Wisk Aero's passenger eVTOL is a four-seat all-electric aircraft design to cruise at 110-120 kt. Wisk plans to make the aircraft autonomous with human oversight, and expects it will have a range of about 78 nm.
A mock-up presented at the RotorTech convention and exhibition earlier this year showed an aircraft with 10 vertical lift propellers and one pusher propeller.
Airservices is estimating that there will be 1 million air taxi flight taken in Australia each year by 2043.