Wisk, with wings to glide, picks skids not wheels

 

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This post appeared as part of our Three Points Newsletter on October 8, 2022

Thanks to Wisk’s patent infringement lawsuit against Archer Aviation (which is still grinding its way through the courts), close industry watchers had a pretty good idea of what the company’s sixth-generation eVTOL would look like before it was revealed to the world on Oct. 3. Indeed, the aircraft features the “12-tilt-6” design that is at the heart of the dispute, with 12 propellers arranged around a fixed wing, the front six of which tilt forward for cruise flight.

Gen 6 is chunkier than the aircraft depicted in the confidential patent design that Wisk claims Archer stole. It embodies some other changes, too, including a shift to four blades for both front and rear props, and a conventional rather than a V tail. But one perplexing design feature persists: the choice of skids over wheeled landing gear (which featured on Wisk’s earlier, public prototypes).

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