Joby Aviation says it’s taken a big step toward certification of its eVTOL aircraft with the first submission of its novel staged approach to the process. Rather than present the finished aircraft for certification, Joby is conducting the first ever “area-specific certification plan” for the tilt rotor design. The first plan covers cabin safety and involves the integrity of the materials, seats and restraints. There are several more area-specific plans to be submitted but Joby didn’t detail those in its news release. It hopes to be flying paying passengers in the aircraft by 2024.
“Today’s milestone is the result of many years of hard work by both the Joby team and the FAA,” said Didier Papadopoulos, head of Programs and Systems at Joby. “It’s also another indication of the great momentum we have on the certification front. With more than two thirds of our means of compliance now agreed with the FAA, we’re looking forward to maintaining that momentum with the submission of further certification plans in the near future.” Earlier this year, the company completed its first set of conformity tests on the composite structure of the aircraft.
Presently, Joby says they employ around 1,000 people, with offices in Santa Cruz, San Carlos, and Marina, California, as well as Washington, D.C. and Munich, Germany.
I’m looking at a seemingly top-heavy organization with all bets on the possibility of a successful, 200 mph, 150 nm range, p135, 4 pax e-VTOL TAXI SERVICE by 2024.
I am also looking at an interesting design with a complex commercial-make-it-up-as-you-go-structuralism as well as an enigmatic flight-training and airmen certification challenge.
2024? Hmm…NO!
Russ, good News-Brief.
“…the integrity of the [interior’s] materials, seats and restraints.”
Kind of like certifying the ashtrays before the wings?
Stretching out certification and being able to claim partial success will ensure that the investment money — spell that income for the principals — keeps flowing.
To paraphrase Mr. Spock “having is not the same as wanting” and in this case “submission is not the same as approval”. Or to further plagiarize this approach will lead to “death by a thousand cuts”.
This does seem REALLY sketchy. Even if it did not, trying to be a first for anything with the FAA isn’t going to help speed anything to success (e.g. Beech Starship).
Finding bureaucrats in government agencies willing to approve anything unusual is not just like finding unicorns. It’s like finding unicorns from Southern Venus.
Fair warning to Joby’s future scapegoat (like former Boeing test pilot Mark Forkner). If you sign your name to absolutely anything under the slightest pressure and/or distress, the wrath of all sides will attack and destroy you. CEOs, executives and most of the FAA never sign anything except holiday cards. They’ll tell the investors and public you “Promised” and “Guaranteed” that the item you signed off was “Perfectly Safe” as they send you to the proverbial public gallows. You ‘deceived’ them. Oh…, and you bullied them too.
Been there done that, got the Tee-Shirt.