Air taxi startup says rival “ripped off” aircraft design

Air taxi startup Wisk Aero has filed a preliminary injunction against rival Archer Aviation to prohibit the company from using trade secrets that it alleges were stolen by former employees.

The electric take-off and landing (eVTOL) company, which is backed by Google co-founder Larry Page, claimed that Archer stole its aircraft concept and has accused at least one of its former employees of downloading “thousands of confidential files” before leaving the company to join Archer as its senior power electronics engineer.

Wisk has identified a total of 52 trade secrets that it claims have been misappropriated by Archer in the motion for preliminary injunction filed with the United States District Court for the Northern District of California yesterday, May 19.

“Wisk has spent over a decade, and hundreds of millions of dollars, working with hundreds of engineers, to develop a unique, cutting-edge eVTOL aircraft that Archer appears to have ripped off wholesale,” the motion says.

“It does not take a PhD in aerospace engineering to recognise the similarities.”

In a statement given to WIPR, an Archer Aviation spokesperson said: “This a baseless motion in a baseless lawsuit. Archer independently designed its aircraft, before any employees from Wisk joined Archer, and Archer looks forward to demonstrating that in court. Archer is moving forward with its business plans, including the development, certification and production of its proprietary aircraft.”

Figure 1: A “comparison of Wisk and Archer’s designs” published by Wisk as part of its complaint.