Wisk Aero, an autonomous aviation company, and Liebherr-Aerospace, a first-tier provider of on-board solutions in the aerospace and transportation industry, today announced an agreement for the development and supply of the actuation system for Wisk’s Generation 6 autonomous, all-electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.

Wisk selected Liebherr to provide a comprehensive electro-mechanical actuation system, which provides control of the aircraft’s flight surfaces—including flaperons, elevators, and rudders—as well as the critical tilt angle of the tilting propulsion system. This new agreement extends through the entire development program, certification efforts, and into full-rate, scaled production.

“The actuation system is one of the most critical systems on our aircraft,” said Eric Haugen, Head of Supply Chain Management at Wisk. “Selecting Liebherr, a well-established, world-class aerospace company, as our long-term supplier for this system is a major milestone for the program. Their institutional knowledge, combined with our innovative approach, has created a powerful, collaborative team dedicated to delivering a safe, certified, all-electric aircraft.”

Liebherr is adapting its proprietary modular flight control system, LiVCAS, to fit the smaller, all-electric architecture of the Gen 6 aircraft. Wisk’s Avionics and Flight Control System teams have been working closely with Liebherr to seamlessly integrate their technology.

“We are very pleased to have been selected by Wisk to develop and deliver the actuation system,” said Dr. Klaus Schneider, Chief Technology Officer, Liebherr-Aerospace & Transportation SAS. “Our versatile, modular, flight control actuation concept has convinced our customer, and we look forward to a long-term partnership with Wisk to help shape the future of air transportation.”

The actuation system is designed with built-in redundancy to meet the highest aviation safety standards required for certification. This unique partnership leverages Liebherr’s deep institutional knowledge in certifying flight control systems for commercial aircraft with Wisk’s innovative approach and collaborative relationship with the FAA on novel systems.

The electro-mechanical actuators and actuator electronic units will be manufactured primarily at Liebherr-Aerospace Lindenberg GmbH (Germany), Liebherr’s center of competence for flight control systems, and Liebherr-Electronics and Drives GmbH in Lindau (Germany).