{"id":159137,"date":"2026-02-10T23:54:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T23:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/159137\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T23:54:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T23:54:12","slug":"skygrid-and-port-san-antonio-to-build-texas-first-vertiport-paving-way-for-autonomous-air-taxis-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/159137\/","title":{"rendered":"SkyGrid and Port San Antonio to build Texas&#8217; first vertiport, paving way for autonomous air taxis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">An Austin-based company called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kvue.com\/article\/travel\/boeing-skygrid-wisk-aero-air-taxi-partnership\/269-bcbd1ecc-a7c2-43ca-b755-b02022844005\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:SkyGrid;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">SkyGrid<\/a> is partnering with Port San Antonio to build the region&#8217;s first vertiport for electric vertical takeoff aircraft.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The port already earmarked nearly $42 million from state and FAA grants to upgrade an existing airfield and lay the groundwork for autonomous flight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">SkyGrid, developed by Austin&#8217;s SparkCognition and Boeing in 2018, is a subsidiary of Wisk Aero. Both companies are owned by Boeing. Wisk\u2019s focus is on the development of \u201cadvanced air mobility\u201d aircraft, while SkyGrid is focused on infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The company will supply the software that maps the local airspace, pulling data from radar and transponders to keep drones and future autonomous aircraft safe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">SkyGrid specializes in airspace integration technology, helping pilotless aircraft safely share the skies. It will help Wisk bring its autonomous electric air taxis to market.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cSkyGrid is really one of the world\u2019s leaders in \u2026 truly understanding what we know and what we don\u2019t know about the signals and the weather in the airspace, developing the technologies and integrating the high-powered computing and the artificial intelligence and everything else to break that down,\u201d Jim Perschbach, the port\u2019s CEO, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statesman.com\/business\/article\/port-san-antonio-air-taxi-vertiport-skygrid-21325196.php\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:told KVUE\u2019s media partners at the Austin-American Statesman;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">told KVUE\u2019s media partners at the Austin-American Statesman<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">According to the Statesman, the vertiport will be connected with Kelly Field. SkyGrid and the port say the complex environment of the airfield, which includes civil, commercial and military aircraft, will provide a unique testing ground.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Officials say the facility could see test flights within the next 10 years, putting Central Texas at the forefront of advanced air mobility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Austin-based company called SkyGrid is partnering with Port San Antonio to build the region&#8217;s first vertiport for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[65325,65400,65396,82,84,83,65394,65395,65398,65397,65399],"class_list":["post-159137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-advanced-air-mobility","tag-autonomous-aircraft","tag-pilotless-aircraft","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-skygrid","tag-vertical-takeoff-aircraft","tag-vertiport","tag-wisk","tag-wisk-aero"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}