Boeing · eVTOL (Electric VTOL) / Urban Air Mobility · USA · Digital Age (2010–present)
Open in interactive gallery →See aircraft like this on the live radar →The Boeing Passenger Air Vehicle (PAV) was an American electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing technology demonstrator built jointly by Boeing and Aurora Flight Sciences as the eVTOL research prototype that informed the later Wisk Aero Cora. Boeing developed the PAV from 2017 to 2019 under Boeing NeXt, the urban-air-mobility business unit since absorbed into Wisk Aero. First flight came on 22 January 2019. The single prototype made a handful of test flights through 2020 before being retired in favour of the Cora programme; production was never the goal.
The airframe measured 9 m in wingspan and 9.1 m in length, with an unmanned weight near 1,135 kg. Eight lift rotors were mounted on twin booms running along the wing, with a single pusher motor at the tail driving forward flight. The lift rotors handled takeoff and landing; the pusher handled cruise. Power was fully electric, though Boeing never disclosed battery specifications. This twin-boom plus tail-pusher layout departed sharply from the Cora's 12-rotor tilt-nacelle arrangement, and the lessons drawn from PAV flight testing pushed Wisk toward the simpler, more efficient Cora configuration.
Flight testing through 2019 and 2020 was hemmed in by the COVID-19 pandemic and by Boeing's parallel reshuffle of its eVTOL strategy. In 2019 the Urban Air Mobility programme was reorganised to fold Boeing's, Aurora's and Kitty Hawk's eVTOL work into the Wisk Aero joint venture (initially Boeing 50% and Kitty Hawk 50%, then 100% Boeing in 2023). PAV flight-test data and design experience fed directly into the Wisk Cora Gen 6. The airframe itself was retired in 2020 and preserved as a Boeing technology demonstrator. Historians study the PAV as an early Boeing eVTOL effort that, while never leading to a production aircraft, supplied the flight-test record and design insights that shaped Boeing's eVTOL path through Wisk Aero.
The Boeing Passenger Air Vehicle, or PAV, was a special flying machine built by Boeing and Aurora Flight Sciences. It first flew on January 22, 2019. It was made to test new ideas about how people might travel through cities one day.
The PAV could take off and land straight up and down, like a helicopter. It had eight spinning rotors to lift it into the air. It also had one motor at the back to push it forward. All of this was powered by electricity, not fuel.
The PAV was about the size of a small airplane. It was 9 meters long and had a wingspan of 9 meters too. It weighed about as much as a large car. It had a twin-boom body, meaning two long arms ran along the wings to hold the rotors.
The PAV was never meant to carry real passengers on real trips. It was a test machine used to learn things. Engineers watched how it flew and used those lessons to help build a better aircraft called the Wisk Aero Cora.
The PAV made several test flights before being retired in 2020. Only one PAV was ever built. The ideas it tested helped make future electric flying taxis safer and smarter.
The PAV was a test aircraft. Boeing used it to learn how electric flying vehicles could take off, fly, and land. It was never meant to carry real passengers on real trips.
The PAV had eight rotors that spun to lift it straight up, just like a helicopter. Then a motor at the back pushed it forward through the air.
The PAV finished its job as a test machine by 2020. The things engineers learned from it were used to help build a better aircraft called the Wisk Aero Cora.
No, the PAV never carried passengers. It was a research machine with no one on board. It helped Boeing figure out how future electric air taxis might work.
The twin-boom and tail-pusher layout was technically sound but commercially weaker than the Cora's 12-rotor tilt-nacelle approach. Three reasons drove the switch. First, production cost: the PAV's twin-boom structure was expensive to manufacture, while the Cora's wing-mounted lift-rotor layout is cheaper to build at scale. Second, cruise efficiency: the PAV's 8 lift rotors were fixed vertical and produced drag without thrust at cruise speed, whereas Cora's tilting rotors provide both vertical lift on takeoff and landing and horizontal thrust in cruise, lifting rotor count from 8 to 12 but improving cruise economics. Third, aerodynamic refinement: Cora's wing and body shape were tuned from PAV flight-test data, cutting drag and improving cruise economics. The PAV's design lessons accelerated Cora development by roughly 2 years versus starting from scratch. The PAV stands as an example of Boeing R&D producing useful engineering intelligence even when the demonstrator itself never reaches production.