Aviation News – Wisk Aero has officially broken ground on a new state-of-the-art vertiport at Hollister Municipal Airport in California to advance autonomous Wisk Aero Hollister vertiport flight testing and infrastructure standards.
The 100-foot by 100-foot facility represents one of the first public airport vertiports in the United States specifically engineered to support both piloted and autonomous operations. Situated directly alongside Wisk’s existing flight test facilities, the site is designed to function as a dedicated operational testbed. Engineers will use the platform to evaluate terminal area flight procedures, gather real-world performance metrics, and refine precision landing technologies under active flight conditions.
Data collected from upcoming test operations will directly inform critical regulatory and safety framework initiatives across the industry. Specifically, findings will support the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP) while accelerating updates to the FAA Vertical Lift Infrastructure Advisory Circular. By validating terminal procedures on-site, Wisk aims to accelerate the commercial timeline for safe, self-flying Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) aircraft across national airspace.
Constructed in full alignment with current FAA vertiport design standards, the facility utilizes a modular, deployable architecture built on steel elevated structures. The design integrates sustainable power banks, solar energy generation, and direct taxiway connectors to ensure seamless airport integration. This transportable infrastructure template allows the entire layout to be easily relocated and redeployed in various operational environments, including planned future eIPP flight testing locations across Texas.
“Establishing dedicated, FAA-compliant infrastructure is a pivotal step toward making safe, autonomous air taxi operations a commercial reality,” stated a Wisk spokesperson. “This facility allows us to rigorously test precision landing systems and terminal flight procedures while delivering actionable operational data to federal regulators.”
As autonomous flight testing ramps up at Hollister, the facility will serve as a foundational blueprint for future urban air mobility hubs nationwide. The successful integration of relocatable, solar-powered vertiport architecture provides a practical roadmap for scaling eVTOL infrastructure to meet upcoming commercial launch timelines.
