Larry Page’s Kitty Hawk air taxi startup is closing down

After over a decade of attempting to make cars with the capability to fly a reality, Kitty Hawk is closing down. “We’re still working on the details of what’s next,” the Larry Page-supported startup posted to LinkedIn on Wednesday afternoon. Before the present declaration, the last time we heard from Kitty Hawk was in the spring of 2021 when it came out the organization had headed out in different directions from engineer Damon Vander Lind following “months” of infighting with Page and CEO Sebastian Thrun. Precisely a year earlier, the organization canceled its original Flyer project and laid off the vast majority of the 70-person team that had dealt with the airplane.

It’s unclear why Kitty Hawk chose to tap out, yet comments Thrun made after the organization finished improvement on Flyer might give some insight. “No matter how hard we looked, we could not find a path to a viable business,” the chief executive said at that point. After Vander Lind’s takeoff the next year, it seemed Kitty Hawk was prepared to twofold down on its Heavyside vertical take-off and setting down airplane. It procured 3D Robotics and welcomed on the organization’s co-founder, former Wired editor Chris Anderson, as chief operating officer.

Notwithstanding the demise of Kitty Hawk, this presumably isn’t the last we’ll know about Larry Page’s car with the capability to fly aspirations. As per CNBC, Wednesday’s closure won’t influence Wisk Air, the organization that was a result of a 2019 association between Kitty Hawk and Boeing.

“Kitty Hawk’s decision to cease operations does not change Boeing’s commitment to Wisk. We are proud to be a founding member of Wisk Aero and are excited to see the work they are doing to drive innovation and sustainability through the future of electric air travel,” Boeing told the outlet. “We do not expect Kitty Hawk’s announcement to affect Wisk’s operations or other activities in any way.”