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Charlotte Bailey

Wisk Aero’s <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/futureflight/2026-03-17/wisk-rolls-out-second-gen-6-evtol-prototype">second flight test aircraft</a> has taken to the skies for the first time, less than two months after being rolled out from the company’s hangar in Hollister, California. The latest so-called ‘Gen 6’ prototype will now join its original sibling in an ongoing autonomous flight test campaign, the company confirmed this week.
During its first flight, the all-electric aircraft performed vertical takeoff, hover, and chirp manoeuvres. The Boeing subsidiary described the milestone, which has matched the timeline for the program it spelt out in March, as “an important first step in characterizing the aircraft’s performance.” 
Building on work achieved by the first test vehicle—which has been flying since December 2025—both aircraft will now work on expanding the flight envelope. Eventuarlly, this will include making the transition from hover to wing-borne flight. 
In March 2026, Wisk head of aircraft development Guillaume Beauchamp told AIN that minor refinements to the second unit’s design were made to save weight and improve stiffness in certain elements of the airframe. These also helped mitigate the additional weight of the instrumentation onboard the first flight test vehicle. 
According to Wisk CEO Sebastien Vigneron, “having multiple aircraft in flight testing allows [the company] to move faster, learn quicker, and stay on the leading edge of autonomous aviation.” In practical terms, this expands the company’s capacity to collect data and validate systems, something Vigneron believes is crucial to supporting its path to commercialization. A third prototype is also slated to further augment the fleet.
Wisk’s Gen 6 eVTOL is designed to carry four passengers on trips of up to 145 kilometers (82 nm), cruising at up to 120 knots at altitudes between 2,500 and 4,000 feet. The company is expecting type certification and entry into service by the end of the decade.
The Gen 6 aircraft was originally unveiled in 2022, building on earlier prototypes designed to validate Wisk’s distributed electric propulsion and autonomous operational concepts. Wisk has previously attributed some 1,750 test flights to its previous five generations of aircraft. However, its sixth-generation concept is the configuration it expects to certify with the FAA.

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