The FAA has issued a special airworthiness certificate to the company after the first production prototype Joby eVTOL came off its Marina, California, production line. The company announced both milestones at an event this week at the factory. The FAA nod sets the stage for certification of the multicopter for a potential certification and entry to service at least close to the company’s 2025 target. It will also allow the first delivery of an airframe to the Air Force, which will test its capabilities at Edwards Air Force Base.
If all goes according to plan, Delta Air Lines, which invested in Joby last year, will be the first commercial operator of the Joby and will likely be the first in the world. It was also announced that Toyota’s U.S. CEO Tetsuo “Ted” Ogawa would become a member of the board of directors on July 1. Toyota poured $400 million into Joby, enabling its relatively rapid development. Joby founder JoeBen Bevirt said the company is on the cusp of turning all that research and development into a business. “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,” he said.
Well done Joby team! This eVTOL seems the most viable and on the cusp of success.
Can you explain what the cusp is that you see them being on?
The “special” airworthy cert accomplishment they pat themselves on the back on this press release come news story is just a fancy PR slight of hand for saying they got an experimental airworthy certificate for N5421A on 6/22
(Experimental AW certs fall under the impressive “Special” category, and you can look up the FAA registration for that plane, and all of the planes manufactured by Joby, and all of the planes owned by them, there’s no big reveal here. Most of their “fleet” is SR-22s, not anything they made. Are they going to do every cert flight test with this one article, that’s gonna take a while)
If it was a big deal to get issued an experimental AW certificate , tens of thousands of AvWeb users, including me, feel like were robbed of their front page news flash when they finished their RV or Cub Kit.
Munch’n popcorn n watch’n.
We approaching the shakeout moment. That’s the time when those that are not going to make it the air taxi industry will drop out.
I would agree that the Joby design is one of the most reasonable with more efficient winged aircraft flight after a vertical takeoff and no extra motors or rotors. And I agree that there are more entities in this market than the market will support. The shakeout is bound to happen but it does not mean that electric flight is not going to happen.
LOL, here comes another press release “news” story.
Actual headline should be “Joby gets an experimental airworthiness certificate for N5421A that they applied for 7 months ago, which literally tens of thousands thousands of people who read AvWeb already did without fanfare. ”
Yep, instead of just saying they got an temporary experimental AW cert that any dummy (including me) can/has gotten, they label it as a “Special” AW cert., which it technically is.
Nothing special about it, though, an not a real accomplishment per se.
We are not “approaching” anything other than another blown deadline. They have been 20 months from a major breakthrough for several years. Nov 2021: “California-based Joby Aviation claims the company is on track to become the first eVTOL developer to receive Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) type certification in 2023.” It sound like my diet – next week I am going to hit the gym, and then sure enough, next week I say the same thing.
“The company announced both milestones at an event this week at the factory.”
Sorry, what were they, again? The experimental AW that anyone can get, but remind me what is the second imaginary one? If you read the rest of the press release, they say “Joby’s newly revealed production prototype will be the first of up to nine aircraft that the company will deliver to the U.S. Air Force”. Unfortunately meeting a mil contract and civil cert are nowhere near the same.
“If all goes according to plan, Delta Air Lines, which invested in Joby last year, will be the first commercial operator of the Joby and will likely be the first in the world”
Uh “Will likely”? Oh yeah, the Days Inn next to the Delta Training Center is currently chock full of guys (and many other genders) with their Delta Joby flight manual, quizzing each other on their gouges for their Sim check in the morning. Hundreds of guys every day, getting ready for 2025. Oh wait, all the powered lift pilots on the planet can fit in my back yard. And there’s no sim according to the FAA database.
It’s like no one read FAA’s NPRM “Integration of Powered-Lift: Pilot Certification and Operations; Miscellaneous Amendments Related to Rotorcraft and Airplanes” from three weeks ago and is still pretending this is a smooth path to get this certified and operating. Anyone who read that knows it’s a huge shot in the foot to the industry, as was classifying them as Powered Lift 7 month ago. Not a shot in the head, but terrible news on timelines that they gloss over.
“The FAA nod sets the stage for certification of the multicopter for a potential certification”
Nope, getting a experimental cert does nothing of the sort. Neither does me buying a fedora set the stage for me being Indiana Jones.
Again, not a naysayer – I actually think eVTOL is definitely happening, but I also know when someone is using PR doublespeak to get gullible investors. Yep, they can do it, but give us a real timeline that someone can not giggle through, then grind it out and get it done.
well articulated
Seems like the fake it till you make it business model is still alive and well………