Look Upon My Certs, Ye Mighty

Joby Aviation, the Toyota-backed designer and builder of electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft, announced that it has received FAA approval to commence flight-testing of its eVTOL air-taxi.

The Santa Cruz, California-based company set forth the FAA had granted a Special Airworthiness Certificate by which Joby is authorized to undertake a flight-testing campaign—sans passengers—of the first production prototype of its nascent eVTOL platform.

Moreover, Joby disclosed Toyota North America CEO Tetsuo Ogawa will presently take a seat on the company’s board.

Holding an estimated $400-million stake in the company, Toyota is Joby's largest external shareholder. All told, Joby has raised north of $1-billion in financing. Moreover, the company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: JOBY) in 2021.

News of the imminence of Joby’s flight-testing program sent the company’s stock soaring 26-percent.

Joby aspires to see its eVTOL enter commercial, passenger-carrying service in 2025. Unlike competing eVTOL concerns, which look to sell their respective aircraft to airlines, leasing firms, and logistics companies, Joby plans to mass-produce its eVTOL and utilize a fleet of such to operate a piloted, on-demand air-taxi service—after the fashion of a ride-share app.

Joby’s intentions for its eVTOL are connoted by the company’s December of 2020 acquisition of Uber Elevate, Uber’s inchoate initiative to launch aerial ridesharing under its established, popular, and ubiquitous brand.

Speaking to the subject of the his company’s newly-granted FAA Special Airworthiness Certification, Joby founder and CEO JoeBen Bevirt remarked: “Today’s achievement is the culmination of years of investment in our processes and technology, and it marks a major step on our journey to scaled production.”

Mr. Bevirt continued: “We’re proud to have launched production in our home state of California. I’m incredibly grateful to the Joby team for their commitment to ensuring Joby remains the clear leader in this new sector and to Toyota for sharing their knowledge and experience with us over many years. Their support has been indispensable in helping us reach this point.”

Joby Aviation’s eVTOL is the first such aircraft to receive FAA Special Airworthiness Certification. The achievement marks a major milestone in the company’s ongoing bid to revolutionize urban transportation.

Following the completion of initial in-air evaluations, Joby's eVTOL will be delivered to Edwards Air Force Base as part of the company’s $131-million contract with the U.S. Air Force’s Agility Prime program—an initiative the service launched in 2020 for purpose of experimenting, testing, and generally hastening the development of eVTOL for cross commercial and military use.

Joby’s Department of Defense (DOD) contract now includes a partnership with the U.S. Marine Corps, which will test the suitability of Joby’s eVTOL to non-combat missions such as resupply, relocation of personnel, and emergency medical response.

The whole of the U.S. military community has cast curious and covetous eyes upon eVTOL, the nimbleness, small size, and relative silence of which are eminently conducive to the stealthy, small-scale operations the Pentagon deems critical to short-term, near-peer conflicts. What’s more, the sense of environmental stewardship tacitly conveyed by their collective adoption of eVTOL’s is good for the optics of an Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps currently facing record-low recruitment numbers.

Presuming development proceeds apace, Joby’s eVTOL will come to market a piloted, four-passenger commercial aircraft with a single-charge range of 130-nautical-miles and a maximum speed of 174-knots. The electrically-powered, ostensibly zero-emission machine is designed to be one-hundred-times quieter than a conventional helicopter during takeoff and landing.

FMI: www.jobyaviation.com