Cora was originally a project developed by Sebastian Thrun’s Kitty Hawk, which it revealed in 2018, and actually began testing quietly in New Zealand in 2017 with an eye towards eventual certification. Kitty Hawk partnered with Boeing on the project, and ultimately the two formed a more formal joint venture that became Wisk, while Kitty Hawk shifted focus to its Heaviside land-anywhere electric vehicle.

The aircraft features a 12-rotor flight system, which provides redundancy and vertical lifts, with one large fixed prop that kicks in post-take off to propel it around 100 miles per hour through the air. It’s definitely designed for short hops, with a range for around 25 miles initially, but the point is that it’s for getting around more flexibly in urban and more densely developed areas, replacing cars and other forms of ground transportation.

If this trial gets underway relatively quickly, it’ll be the first major initiative of its kind active in the world, which would be a significant step towards commercial short-hop air taxi service and definitely something closely watched by the rest of the aviation and mobility industry.