Joby completes second of four System Reviews with the FAA as part of its type certification programme

Joby Avi­a­tion has announced the com­ple­tion of its sec­ond of four sys­tem reviews required by the Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion (FAA) as part of the company’s air­craft type cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­gramme.

In an announce­ment made today (Wednes­day), the in-per­son, mul­ti-day audit by the FAA was com­plet­ed at Joby’s facil­i­ties in Mari­na, Cal­i­for­nia, and demon­strates fur­ther progress on its path to cer­ti­fy its eVTOL air­craft. 

Didi­er Papadopou­los, Head of Air­craft OEM at Joby, said: “Progress on cer­ti­fi­ca­tion is a key area of focus for this nascent sec­tor, and we’re pleased to mark our con­tin­ued lead­er­ship with the suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of our sec­ond Sys­tem Review. We’re con­fi­dent that our air­craft design is on track to meet the FAA’s expec­ta­tions regard­ing sys­tem-lev­el safe­ty, redun­dan­cy, and over­all air­craft archi­tec­ture.

“We’re grate­ful to the FAA for their ded­i­ca­tion to safe­ty and deep engage­ment on our ongo­ing cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­gram.”

The series of sys­tem reviews serve to val­i­date the over­all archi­tec­ture of the air­craft and ensure the Company’s devel­op­ment process is on track to sat­is­fy the FAA’s safe­ty objec­tives asso­ci­at­ed with com­plex air­craft sys­tems.

The sys­tem reviews take place along­side the ongo­ing sub­mis­sion of Means of Com­pli­ance, area-spe­cif­ic cer­ti­fi­ca­tion plans, and oth­er cer­ti­fi­ca­tion doc­u­ments that cov­er spe­cif­ic ele­ments of the Joby air­craft and its sys­tems.

In Sep­tem­ber, Joby announced dur­ing its third quar­ter results call that 84 per cent of its Means of Com­pli­ance had been accept­ed by the FAA, with four area-spe­cif­ic cer­ti­fi­ca­tion plans sub­mit­ted for approval. Ear­li­er this year, Joby announced the com­ple­tion of its first Sys­tems and Com­pli­ance Reviews and car­ried out its first for-cred­it FAA con­for­mi­ty tests.

In May, Joby received its Part 135 Air Car­ri­er Cer­tifi­cate from the FAA, enabling the Com­pa­ny to oper­ate a com­mer­cial air taxi ser­vice in the Unit­ed States. Joby intends to cer­ti­fy its air­craft in time to com­mence com­mer­cial pas­sen­ger ser­vice in 2025. 

Oth­er notable high­lights from Joby this year include devel­op­ing an ‘Liv­ing Lab’ ter­mi­nal with Sky­ports Infra­struc­ture and its big announce­ment in Octo­ber with Delta Air­lines, which will inte­grate a Joby-oper­at­ed ser­vice into Delta’s cus­tomer-fac­ing chan­nels.

This will pro­vide cus­tomers who trav­el with Delta through New York and Los Ange­les the oppor­tu­ni­ty to reserve a seat for short-range jour­neys to and from city air­ports.