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Joby Aviation becomes first to conduct flight tests in Korea under K‑UAM Grand Challenge

Joby Avi­a­tion has today (Fri­day) suc­cess­ful­ly com­plet­ed a series of flight tests in Korea as part of the K‑UAM Grand Chal­lenge.

The com­pa­ny is the first elec­tric air taxi com­pa­ny to com­plete flights as part of the pro­gram, which was launched in 2023 by Korea’s Min­istry of Land, Infra­struc­ture and Trans­port (MOLIT) to sup­port the com­mer­cial­iza­tion of air taxis in the Kore­an mar­ket.

Over the course of a week, Joby suc­cess­ful­ly com­plet­ed a range of mis­sions demon­strat­ing var­i­ous flight pro­files and con­di­tions, includ­ing ful­ly wing-borne flight. Joby also demon­strat­ed its capa­bil­i­ty to col­lab­o­rate on air­craft oper­a­tions with poten­tial Kore­an part­ners ahead of future com­mer­cial­iza­tion in the coun­try.

JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and CEO of Joby, said: “Com­plet­ing our first flights in Korea marks a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone towards launch­ing oper­a­tions in the Kore­an mar­ket, where our ser­vice has incred­i­ble poten­tial to save peo­ple time and improve con­nec­tiv­i­ty in dense­ly pop­u­lat­ed cities like Seoul and more remote areas like Jeju Province, where nat­ur­al bar­ri­ers com­pli­cate ground transportation/

Joby is par­tic­i­pat­ing in the Grand Chal­lenge as part of the “K‑UAM Dream Team,” a con­sor­tium that includes SK Tele­com, Han­wha Sys­tems, TMAP and Korea Air­ports Cor­po­ra­tion, which oper­ates the vast major­i­ty of air­ports in Korea.

Hyung Pil Jun, Assis­tant Min­is­ter of Mobil­i­ty and Motor Vehi­cles Bureau for the Kore­an gov­ern­ment, said: “Through the Grand Chal­lenge, Joby Avi­a­tion, along with the K‑UAM Dream Team includ­ing SKT, is show­cas­ing the next gen­er­a­tion of world-lead­ing avi­a­tion capa­bil­i­ties by com­bin­ing their world-class eVTOL air­craft with the Kore­an indus­try’s tech­nol­o­gy on flight con­trol, traf­fic man­age­ment, and ver­ti­port oper­a­tions.”

The flights, com­plet­ed at the Gohe­ung Avi­a­tion Test Cen­ter in South Jeol­la Province, will cul­mi­nate with a cel­e­bra­to­ry event tomor­row (Sat­ur­day, Decem­ber 14th), host­ed by MOLIT, dur­ing which the qui­et acoustic foot­print of Joby’s air­craft will be demon­strat­ed in front of more than 200 guests, includ­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tives from Kore­an and U.S. gov­ern­ment agen­cies.

Joby con­tin­ues to lead the air taxi indus­try towards cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of its elec­tric air taxi with the Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion in the USA and recent­ly rolled its fourth pro­duc­tion pro­to­type air­craft off the Company’s man­u­fac­tur­ing line in Mari­na, Cal­i­for­nia.

Korea is the third coun­try in which Joby has received an air­wor­thi­ness cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for demon­stra­tion and flight test­ing, fol­low­ing sim­i­lar approvals in the Unit­ed States and Japan.

The Joby elec­tric air taxi is designed to car­ry a pilot and up to four pas­sen­gers at speeds of up to 200 mph, offer­ing high-speed mobil­i­ty with a frac­tion of the noise pro­duced by heli­copters and zero oper­at­ing emis­sions.

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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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