Kitty Hawk
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Kitty Hawk developed electric vertical-takeoff aircraft, including the Flyer and Heaviside projects.
02 / Kitty Hawk FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Kitty Hawk could find no path to a viable business, as CEO Sebastian Thrun said after the Flyer cancellation; the eVTOL concept proved a greater challenge than anticipated - the single-seat Flyer project was canceled in 2020 and most of its 70-person team laid off; and leadership turmoil in spring 2021 saw the company part ways with lead engineer Damon Vander Lind after months of infighting with Larry Page and Thrun.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Product focus changed
The company ended Flyer development and concentrated on Heaviside after another project became a Boeing joint venture.
- Corporate wind-down announced
September reporting confirmed the company’s decision to wind down without an explicit explanation of its cause.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
On September 21, 2022 Kittyhawk announced via social media: 'We have made the decision to wind down Kittyhawk. We're still working on the details of what's next.'
- 02
On September 22, 2022 the company filed a WARN notice in California: 100 employees laid off, three offices permanently closed (two in Palo Alto, one in Mountain View), effective November 22, 2022.
- 03
The technology lives on through Wisk Aero, the 2019 joint venture with Boeing (which had invested $450 million); Boeing said Wisk's operations would not be affected.
- 04
No audited loss figure was disclosed.