Joby Aviation hits new milestone as it enters next phase of certification process with FAA and begins conformity testing

Joby Avi­a­tion has begun Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion (FAA) con­for­mi­ty test­ing, which rep­re­sents a key mile­stone on the path to achiev­ing type cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for its com­mer­cial eVTOL air­craft.

The start of con­for­mi­ty test­ing is a sig­nif­i­cant moment for the Joby team, as the company’s air­craft type cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­gram enters the ‘imple­men­ta­tion phase’ for the first time. 

Joby’s first series of con­for­mi­ty tests, observed and doc­u­ment­ed by an on-site FAA Des­ig­nat­ed Engi­neer­ing Rep­re­sen­ta­tive (DER), was com­plet­ed this week at Toray Advanced Com­pos­ites USA’s facil­i­ty in Mor­gan Hill, Cal­i­for­nia.

JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO of Joby, said: “After years of devel­op­ment and com­pa­ny test­ing, we’re excit­ed to for­mal­ly begin the process of con­for­mi­ty test­ing. We began engag­ing with the FAA in 2015 to lay the ground­work for cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of our air­craft, and today we move clos­er to bring­ing fast, clean and con­ve­nient aer­i­al ride-shar­ing to the world.”

The test­ing, devel­oped by Joby engi­neers, is designed to con­firm the mate­r­i­al strength of com­pos­ite coupons that are rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the aerostruc­ture of Joby’s air­craft. The result­ing com­pli­ance data will form the foun­da­tion for future test­ing of struc­tur­al com­po­nents of the air­craft as Joby pro­gress­es through the type cer­ti­fi­ca­tion process.

Each sys­tem and struc­ture of the Joby air­craft will enter the imple­men­ta­tion phase and begin con­for­mi­ty test­ing fol­low­ing com­ple­tion and approval of require­ments def­i­n­i­tion and com­pli­ance plan­ning. Dur­ing this phase, Joby will com­plete thou­sands of inspec­tions and tests to demon­strate the air­wor­thi­ness and safe­ty of its air­craft before receiv­ing a type cer­tifi­cate from the FAA.

Lina Spross, qual­i­ty and sup­ply chain lead at Joby, said: “Enter­ing this stage of test­ing demon­strates that we’re capa­ble of man­u­fac­tur­ing com­pos­ite parts in accor­dance with their design, our qual­i­ty sys­tem is capa­ble of pro­duc­ing con­form­ing com­pos­ite parts for the air­craft, and that we have the req­ui­site trace­abil­i­ty and design ver­i­fi­ca­tion process­es in place to progress toward our type and pro­duc­tion cer­ti­fi­ca­tions.”

In Novem­ber 2021, Joby com­plet­ed its first FAA part con­for­mi­ty inspec­tion as expect­ed, con­firm­ing that the batch of test coupons used in the ‘for cred­it’ test­ing con­formed to the attrib­ut­es and spec­i­fi­ca­tions of their asso­ci­at­ed design data and as intend­ed for the aircraft’s type cer­ti­fi­ca­tion.

The coupons, con­struct­ed using a tough­ened epoxy and state-of-the-art car­bon fiber, result in a mate­r­i­al that is lighter and stronger than exist­ing aero­space-grade com­pos­ites, mak­ing it ide­al for a high-per­for­mance eVTOL air­craft.

In 2020, Joby became the first and only eVTOL air­craft com­pa­ny to sign a G‑1 (stage 4) cer­ti­fi­ca­tion basis with the FAA, hav­ing received an ini­tial (stage 2) signed G‑1 from the FAA in 2019. In par­al­lel with this work, the com­pa­ny con­tin­ues to make progress with the FAA on defin­ing the means of com­pli­ance that will apply to its air­craft as it pro­gress­es with cer­ti­fi­ca­tion efforts.