The jetmaker and Kitty Hawk declined to comment. Public filings and organizational shifts at Kitty Hawk described by former employees indicate that there’s been a change of control of the Cora program, and Boeing seems the likely acquirer. These challenges may explain why a strategic partnership with Boeing announced in June could go much deeper than publicly announced. In the case of urban air mobility, many of the requirements don’t yet exist. However, the company faces the same problems as any aspirant in the field: the poor energy density of the current generation of batteries severely limits the flight times and carrying capacity of electric aircraft, and building a functioning prototype is faster and easier than turning it into a reliable product that satisfies aviation regulators’ safety requirements. Kitty Hawk got off to an earlier start than many of the scores of startups now attempting to build electric urban air taxis, and the deep pockets of Page, who has a nearly $60 billion fortune, have been a huge advantage, enabling the company to hire hundreds of engineers, machinists and designers to create cutting-edge aircraft. “That’s just how it had to be if you wanted to keep getting a paycheck.”ĭaver did not respond directly to questions about employee departures, but said workers at Kitty Hawk are required to report safety-related issues to their managers, or through a confidential digital channel directly to the general counsel and human resources, and can anonymously discuss safety concerns with an external safety director. “It was a pattern-if you talked about safety, you were done, so you just didn’t,” said one former employee. She did not comment directly on the fires or reports of breakdowns or problems with batteries.
“No person has ever been harmed or exposed due to undue risk in over 26,000 test flights with over 100 prototype vehicles,” wrote Shernaz Daver, an advisor to Kitty Hawk, in an email response to a list of questions sent by Forbes. Last year, the Mountain View Fire Department was called to put out an early morning blaze at the Flyer building, city records show former employees said the fire at the Google-owned building involved damaged batteries that had been pulled out of a Flyer that had crashed the previous day in flight testing under remote operation. Behind closed doors, Flyer encountered problems, including frequent breakdowns and fires involving batteries, electric motors and wiring, two former engineers said. Kitty Hawk said it was working on its first commercial air taxi, a vehicle built off of the H2 platform that would be small, light and quiet and remotely piloted.Kitty Hawk confirmed to Forbes that, after unveiling a more polished version of Flyer last year, it has decided not to sell the one-seater to individuals and has returned deposits to would-be buyers. However, its website hinted at another stage for the company. Sources told TechCrunch that Kitty Hawk was working on Heaviside in 2022. By then, the company had built more than 16 H2 vehicles.īy 2022, however, the mission was less clear. The demo was part of a joint effort with the FAA, the Air Force and SkyVision, a ground-based radar service. Kitty Hawk hit another milestone in 2021 when it demonstrated a beyond-visual-line-of-sight flight in Ohio. Lind was fired in May 2021, Forbes reported at the time. Internal strife between Thrun and Heaviside program lead, physicist and electrical engineer Damon Vander Lind, added to the pressure. While the program progressed, competitors like Beta Technologies, Joby Aviation, Lilium and Volocopter popped up and made progress as well. HVSD, which is named after renowned physicist and electrical engineer Oliver Heaviside, is Kitty Hawk’s third act. With Flyer shuttered and Cora spun off, Kitty Hawk’s only mission was Heaviside and reportedly another larger version of the aircraft.
In early 2022, Boeing invested another $450 million into Wisk.
The joint venture, now named Wisk, is trying to develop and commercialize electric, self-flying air taxis.
Cora was spun off in late 2019 into a joint venture with Boeing. Kitty Hawk had at least one other public project called Cora, a two-person, autonomous flying taxi that was initially revealed in 2018. Sebastian Thrun of Kitty Hawk at TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2019 on October 3, 2019.
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