Boeing to Take 19.75% Stake in Archer Aviation as Archer Acquires Wisk Aero, Insitu and SkyGrid

On August 10, 2026, Boeing announced it would take a minority stake in Archer Aviation, which builds electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. In exchange for 19.75% of its Class A shares, Archer will acquire three Boeing subsidiaries: Wisk Aero, Insitu and SkyGrid.

Boeing will gain a seat on Archer's board of directors and will invest up to $55 million in stock in Archer's next funding round. Both Archer and Wisk use additive manufacturing as a core part of development and production. Archer relies on 3D printing, mainly Stereolithography (SLA) and Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), for lightweight components, tooling, prototypes and non-primary flight hardware such as ducts, cowlings, interior clips, covers and sensor mounts. Wisk uses 3D printing largely to prototype and test designs rapidly.

Following the acquisition, the two programs are to be integrated into a diversified platform combining Wisk's autonomy capabilities with Archer's manufacturing infrastructure.

Founded in 2018 and based in California, Archer is developing the piloted, five-seat, all-electric Midnight air taxi, which has a range of up to 100 miles and a top cruising speed of 150 mph. In July, Midnight completed a piloted round trip between Salinas Municipal Airport and Monterey Regional Airport, with each leg taking nine minutes versus more than 35 minutes by car.

Archer is the first air taxi company to close out Phase 3 of the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) four-phase certification process. It delivered its first Midnight aircraft to the U.S. Air Force in August 2024.

In December 2024, Archer opened a production facility at Covington Municipal Airport in Georgia, developed with Stellantis. The site spans about 100 acres and includes a 350,000-square-foot factory. Through the Stellantis partnership it uses 3D-printed wire harnesses that weigh 75% less than traditional architectures and require 95% fewer conductors.

Wisk was founded in 2019 as a joint venture between Boeing and Kitty Hawk and has flown six generations of electric aircraft, with over 1,750 flight tests. Its Generation 6 is a five-seat self-flying air taxi with a 90-mile range and 15-minute recharge time, cruising between 2,500 and 4,000 feet.

The first full-scale Generation 6 prototype was flight tested in December 2025 and a second in May 2026. Wisk signed a five-year Non-Reimbursable Space Act Agreement with NASA in May 2025, and in July 2026 the two successfully simulated a 1:3 supervisor-to-aircraft ratio.

The structure matters as much as the stake. Boeing keeps a minority position and a board seat while handing over three operating units, so the eVTOL race is being reorganised around who owns manufacturing capacity and certification progress rather than who owns the most programs. Archer brings a Georgia factory and a lead position in the FAA's four-phase process; Wisk brings a self-flying design with a supervisor-to-aircraft simulation already completed with NASA.

For the segment, a piloted air taxi and an autonomous one are being placed under one roof, which is a different bet from running them as competing programs. Advanced air mobility has generally been constrained by the cost of building and certifying aircraft at the same time, and pooling production infrastructure with autonomy work addresses both at once.

The next milestone is the closing of the share exchange and the next funding round into which Boeing is to invest up to $55 million in stock; those will show how the combined platform is capitalised and how the three acquired subsidiaries are folded in.