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Joby Aviation to host international aviation regulators in California as part of a ‘technology familiarisation’ session

Joby Avi­a­tion will host avi­a­tion reg­u­la­tors from around the world at its man­u­fac­tur­ing and flight test­ing facil­i­ties in Mari­na, Cal­i­for­nia, as part of ongo­ing inter­na­tion­al cer­ti­fi­ca­tion efforts.

The week-long ses­sion, known as a ‘tech­nol­o­gy famil­iar­iza­tion’, is a for­mal part of the process of val­i­dat­ing an aircraft’s type design for use in inter­na­tion­al mar­kets.

Dur­ing the ses­sion, reg­u­la­tors from three coun­tries — each of which have exist­ing bilat­er­al avi­a­tion safe­ty agree­ments with the Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion (FAA) — will engage with Joby team mem­bers and tech­nol­o­gy, as well as FAA staff, to sup­port the con­tin­ued har­mon­i­sa­tion of cer­ti­fi­ca­tion approach­es for elec­tric air taxis around the world.

Atten­dees include per­son­nel from the U.K. Civ­il Avi­a­tion Author­i­ty, Japan Civ­il Avi­a­tion Bureau (JCAB), and Australia’s Civ­il Avi­a­tion Safe­ty Author­i­ty (CASA), all of which rep­re­sent nations where Joby has applied for val­i­da­tion of its FAA type cer­tifi­cate, once received.

Didi­er Papadopou­los, Pres­i­dent of Air­craft OEM at Joby, com­ment­ed: “By host­ing reg­u­la­tors from key mar­kets around the world, we have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to share the indus­try-lead­ing work we con­tin­ue to do with the FAA.

“From the U.K. to Japan and Aus­tralia, Joby is work­ing with for­ward-lean­ing nations to ensure align­ment on safe­ty and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion efforts that will enable the deploy­ment of qui­et, emis­sions-free air­craft in cities and com­mu­ni­ties around the world soon after we com­plete cer­ti­fi­ca­tion here in the US.”

Joby’s glob­al cer­ti­fi­ca­tion strat­e­gy lever­ages exist­ing bilat­er­al avi­a­tion safe­ty agree­ments between the FAA and dozens of nations around the world, includ­ing the UK, Japan, and Aus­tralia.

In addi­tion to this work, Joby con­tin­ues to engage with the Min­istry of Land, Infra­struc­ture, and Trans­port and plans to par­tic­i­pate in South Kore­a’s K‑UAM Grand Chal­lenge.

Joby also con­tin­ues to engage with reg­u­la­to­ry author­i­ties from oth­er mar­kets, includ­ing the UAE’s Gen­er­al Civ­il Avi­a­tion Author­i­ty and the Euro­pean Union Avi­a­tion Safe­ty Agency (EASA).

This week, the FAA pub­lished new rules for air taxi pilot train­ing and oper­a­tions in the US, call­ing it ‘the final piece of the puz­zle for safe­ly intro­duc­ing these air­craft in the near term’.

In Feb­ru­ary 2024, Joby became the first elec­tric air taxi devel­op­er to com­plete the third of five stages of the FAA type cer­ti­fi­ca­tion process, and, as of August 2024, the Com­pa­ny had com­plet­ed more than one-third of its work for the fourth stage.

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Jason Pritchard

Jason Pritchard is the Editor of eVTOL Insights. He holds a BA from Leicester's De Montfort University and has worked in Journalism and Public Relations for more than a decade. Outside of work, Jason enjoys playing and watching football and golf. He also has a keen interest in Ancient Egypt.

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