SHAKEUP: Kittyhawk To Shut Down.

Even as news broke that the decision had been made to cease operations of advanced air mobility (AAM) startup Kittyhawk, the company was advertising job openings in human resources, purchasing and engineering, and for a flight test engineer.

The company announced the decision in a LinkedIn post on Sept. 21.

It is the first major shakeup in the emerging AAM industry, which has attracted billions of dollars of investment and support from government agencies, ranging from city councils to federal agencies. Kittyhawk was ranked 10th on the Aviation Week/SMG Consulting Advanced Air Mobility Reality Index as recently as August 2022.

Kittyhawk was, per Larry Page’s vision, a moonshot, a make it or break it venture,” says Sergio Cecutta, a principal at SMG Consulting and the developer of the AAM Reality Index. “They went for a vehicle that would allow for point-to-point passenger transportation without any first or last mile multimodality. Heaviside was a product ahead of the urban air mobility market development.”

The whole industry is ahead of the market, if there really is one yet outside government-subsidized trials.

More stories like this to come.