Hanneke Weitering is a writer and editor with AIN covering advanced air mobility and new flight technologies. She became an aviation journalist and joined the AIN team in the summer of 2022 after reporting on spaceflight and astronomy for six years at Space.com. After earning a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, she moved to New York City to pursue a master’s degree in science, health, and environmental reporting at New York University&#039;s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. She is now based in Seattle near Boeing Field and spends her free time exploring nature in the Pacific Northwest.

Science & Technology Editor

this is where Howard&#039;s bio goes

Leeham News and Analysis Editor

Hanneke Weitering

Howard Hardee

Read the latest news about Archer Aviation. 

Archer Aviation will acquire autonomous eVTOL aircraft developer Wisk Aero, along with airspace management software company SkyGrid and defense drone manufacturer Insitu, from Boeing in an all-stock transaction that hands Boeing just under one-fifth of Archer and a seat on its board, the companies announced today. The deal delivers Archer the autonomy program of the rival that sued it for trade secret theft five years ago.
Under an equity purchase agreement signed on Sunday, Boeing receives a block of stock equal to 19.75% of Archer’s Class A shares outstanding immediately before the deal closes, according to the Form 8-K that the San Jose, California-based company filed on Monday. The deal, expected to close by year-end, has an estimated value of about $1 billion.
Archer founder and CEO Adam Goldstein called the transaction “a watershed moment” for the company and a step toward “becoming a diversified platform.” Boeing v-p of commercial airplanes product development Brian Yutko, who ran Wisk before taking his current job, described it as “a win-win,” saying it lets Boeing recover value from two decades of investment while it concentrates on its core businesses.
Insitu supplies the revenue Archer has so far lacked. The maker of the ScanEagle family of uncrewed aircraft brings in more than $200 million a year and works in 35 countries, according to Boeing. Archer reported $1.6 million in revenue for the first quarter of this year.
<h2>Archer’s Defense Business Grows</h2>
The acquisition also bolsters Archer’s recent push into defense. Archer<a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/defense/2026-07-20/archer-and-anduril-join-hybrid-defense-drone-chase">&nbsp;unveiled Thunder</a>, a hybrid-electric autonomous aircraft developed with Anduril, on the opening day of the Farnborough International Airshow last month, pitching it for military missions such as low-level attack. Days later, Japanese leasing group Marubeni backed Halo, the commercial variant of the same uncrewed aircraft. Much of Archer’s defense line was purchased: Archer took<a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/defense/2025-08-11/archer-boosts-defense-capability-overair-ip-and-composites">&nbsp;intellectual property and composites capability from Overair</a> in August 2025 and<a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/futureflight/2025-10-15/archer-obtains-liliums-evtol-patent-portfolio">&nbsp;Lilium’s eVTOL patent portfolio</a> that October. Neither Thunder nor Halo has flown.
Insitu has fielded more than 3,500 uncrewed aircraft and sells to the armed forces of 35 nations, so Archer is gaining customers, production lines, and revenue rather than another program in development. In the announcement, the companies said the autonomy and airspace software from all three businesses will feed “Zee,” the artificial intelligence model Archer built for aerospace and defense, producing what they call an end-to-end physical AI platform. Wisk brings a flight-control computer, sensor suite, and radar system designed for civil and defense certification, according to the same statement.
Each business reached Boeing by a different route. Boeing bought Bingen, Washington-based Insitu outright in 2008. Wisk began in 2019 as a joint venture with Kitty Hawk and became wholly owned in May 2023. Boeing formed SkyGrid in 2018 as a joint venture with Austin, Texas-based SparkCognition to develop an airspace management system built on artificial intelligence and blockchain; it later<a href="https://www.ainonline.com/news-article/2020-02-12/skygrid-adds-local-weather-data-autonomous-aircraft-operations-support">&nbsp;added hyper-local weather data from ClimaCell</a> and<a href="https://www.ainonline.com/news-article/2020-09-30/skygrid-introduces-mission-application-support-unmanned-aircraft-operations">&nbsp;released a mission-planning app</a> for drone operators. Boeing folded SkyGrid into its Wisk business in mid-2025.
Five companies are party to the purchase agreement alongside Boeing and Archer: Wisk Aero, Insitu, Insitu Pacific,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/futureflight/2024-10-15/australias-atc-agency-prepares-integrate-autonomous-evtol">Wisk Australia</a>, and Boeing Emirates, an Abu Dhabi Global Market company the agreement calls Insitu Emirates. SkyGrid is not among them, because it transfers inside Wisk. The Abu Dhabi entity carries its own significance; Archer has spent two years building toward<a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/futureflight/2025-11-15/evtol-rivals-race-prove-air-taxi-use-case-uae">&nbsp;launch operations in the United Arab Emirates</a>, and Insitu already handles drone sales and support in the region.

<h2>Why Boeing Is Selling</h2>
Boeing has been shedding businesses outside commercial jets since Kelly Ortberg became CEO. Last year it sold Digital Aviation Solutions—Jeppesen, ForeFlight, AerData, and OzRunways—to private equity firm Thoma Bravo for $10.5 billion. Some within the industry believe that, rather than having much interest in Wisk’s envisioned business case for a self-flying air taxi, Boeing considered the subsidiary purely a technology incubator informing autonomous flight systems on Boeing’s future airliners.
Yutko has pushed back on that reading. At the Farnborough International Airshow, he rejected the idea that Wisk was only ever a technology incubator for Boeing. In a passing conversation with&nbsp;AIN sister site&nbsp;<a href="https://leehamnews.com/2026/08/10/boeing-retains-access-to-wisks-autonomous-flight-technology-in-latest-sell-off/">Leeham News and Analysis</a>, he maintained that any company working to advance technology must make an earnest effort to reach the market. Otherwise, he said, breakthroughs with real-world applications are unlikely.
Looking more broadly across the aerospace sector, Boeing’s sale of Wisk further reduces the number of established airframers directly involved in air taxi development, after Wichita’s Textron quietly wound down its <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/futureflight/2025-10-17/textron-pulls-plug-eaviation-division">Nexus eVTOL</a> development program as it shuttered its eAviation business unit, and Airbus Helicopters paused work on the <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2025-02-10/airbus-orders-climb-cityairbus-evtol-program-pausing">CityAirbus NextGen</a> project. Now, Embraer-backed Eve, developing the four-passenger <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/futureflight/2026-08-05/eve-100-demonstrator-makes-partial-transition-flight">Eve 100</a>, stands as an exception.
Boeing will not walk away from autonomous flight. It keeps access to Wisk’s core autonomy technology for its current and future commercial and defense aircraft, and at closing each company will grant the other worldwide rights to use some of its technology. Neither that license nor the transition services agreement appears among the exhibits filed with the 8-K, so their scope stays private. Jefferies analysts wrote on August 10 that the arrangement amounts to a cross-license preserving Boeing’s access to Wisk’s core autonomous flight technology.

<h2>eVTOL Rivals</h2>
Wisk sued Archer in April 2021 in the U.S. federal court for the Northern District of California, alleging that a departing engineer carried thousands of proprietary files to the start-up and that Archer’s two-seat Maker demonstrator copied the patented design of Wisk’s then-unrevealed sixth-generation aircraft. Archer countered that Wisk filed the patent application only after learning of Archer’s tiltrotor design at a recruitment meeting.
Federal prosecutors declined to charge the engineer in February 2023. Six months later, days before trial,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ainonline.com/news-article/2023-08-10/archer-and-wisk-reach-settlement-over-trade-secrets-lawsuit">the companies settled</a>: Archer delivered just over 13 million shares nominally valued at $73 million, named Wisk its exclusive provider of autonomous flight technology, and took an undisclosed Boeing investment as part of a $215 million funding round.
Both companies have roles in the U.S.<a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/futureflight/2026-03-31/faa-evtol-integration-pilot-program-flips-script">&nbsp;eVTOL Integration Pilot Program</a>, the precertification operating framework an executive order established in June 2025. The Department of Transportation and the FAA selected eight projects in March; Wisk leads one, and Archer is a partner on three, led by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the transportation departments of Texas and Florida. It is unclear what will become of Wisk’s eIPP project.
Their aircraft differ, and so do their timelines. Archer is pursuing FAA type certification for the pilot-plus-four-passenger Midnight in 2026 or 2027, while Wisk has been pursuing a pilotless, four-passenger aircraft expected to enter service by 2030. Wisk has been&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/futureflight/2026-05-05/wisk-makes-first-flight-second-gen-6-evtol-prototype">flight-testing a pair of Gen 6 prototypes</a> this year.
With the acquisition of Wisk, Archer also inherits pending litigation. A former Wisk software engineering manager<a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/futureflight/2026-07-02/wisk-boeing-sued-over-evtol-software-safety-claims">&nbsp;sued Wisk and Boeing</a> in Santa Clara County Superior Court on June 29, alleging that Wisk fired her after she reported that its vehicle management system software failed verification steps required under DO-178C, the FAA-recognized standard for aviation software. A case management conference is set for December 2. A Wisk spokeswoman declined to comment on the allegations, citing the pending case.
Language in the purchase agreement suggests the two sides negotiated over technical risk in the Gen 6 program. The agreement frees Archer from completing the purchase if something goes badly wrong at the three businesses before the sale closes. One category of trouble does not count: a crash, failure, or defect involving Wisk’s Gen 6 aircraft. Archer cannot treat a Gen 6 accident or a defect finding as grounds to abandon the deal.
Both companies expect to close by the end of 2026. First, U.S. antitrust regulators and national security reviewers must sign off, and the New York Stock Exchange must approve listing the shares going to Boeing. Either side can walk away if the sale has not closed by May 9, 2027.
Archer reports second-quarter results after the market closes today (August 10) with an investor call scheduled for 2 p.m. Pacific Time (5 p.m. Eastern).

Issues regarding financing of aircraft; aviation insurance; tax issues for aircraft operators; new companies and people in the aviation financing and insurance industries.

Archer To Acquire Wisk, Insitu, and SkyGrid from Boeing

Boeing takes nearly 20% stake and a board seat in all-stock deal

Archer will acquire Wisk Aero, SkyGrid, and Insitu from Boeing in an all-stock transaction that hands Boeing one-fifth of Archer and a seat on its board.

2024 Corporate Aviation Leadership Summit

Curt Epstein

News about bills, laws, regulations and other governmental decisions affecting aviation and aerospace. Topics include FAA re-authorizations, taxes on fuel and aviation activities, environmental legislation, ICAO decisions, governmental mediation of labor conflicts and World Trade Organization disputes and decisions.

News and issues relating to business, corporate and private aviation, primarily regarding turbine-engine-powered airplanes and helicopters. Subjects include aircraft, engines, maintenance, operations, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security, and training.

County changed its rules on time spent in California

L.A. County Tightens Tax Rules on Out-of-state Aircraft

Amy Wilder

Overall preowned transactions rose 11.2% in second quarter

Preowned Heavy Jets Post Q2 Value Gains Amid Price Drop

News and issues concerning the aviation charter and fractional-ownership industries and markets, including company announcements, regulations, new developments and labor issues.

Private flight group's Signature members doubled in first half, topping 1,200

Mixed Results Leave Wheels Up Striving for Net Profits

Dealer confidence rating improves from year-ago quarter

IADA Q2 Report Shows Tight Inventory, Strong Sales

Trappier cites renewed Asian interest in Falcon business jet market

Dassault 1H Revenue Nears €4.2B; Falcon Sales Rebound

Charles Alcock

News and developments about airplanes, helicopters and unmanned air vehicles used in all varieties of operations, including airlines, military, business, commercial, general aviation and private.

News and issues relating to the aerospace industry that are related to the science, engineering and business of flight in space involving civil, industrial and military applications, and similar topics related to flight in the atmosphere of the Earth that are not covered more directly by other AINonline subject channels. In other words, both astronautical and aeronautical subjects, except for those aeronautical topics that are specifically covered elsewhere on this website.

Essential news and analysis on the defense aerospace business. Your trusted source for new and ongoing programs and requirements in military aircraft (manned and unmanned), engines, avionics, weapons and associated systems, including ground-based air defense.

AIA chief warns budget swings still threaten suppliers

U.S. Aerospace Chases Supply-chain Stability

Transition involved nearly 100 aircraft since early 2024

Wheels Up Fleet Transition Completed Early by 5x5

Matt Thurber

News and issues concerning general aviation, specifically airplanes and helicopters powered by piston and alternative engines (i.e., non-turbine powered aircraft). Subjects include aircraft, engines, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security and training.

In this article

Archer Aviation

Wisk Aero

More In Finance, Taxes, Insurance