Joby receives FAA permit to fly first aircraft built on production line

Joby Avi­a­tion yes­ter­day announced it has received a Spe­cial Air­wor­thi­ness Cer­tifi­cate for the first air­craft built at its pilot pro­duc­tion line in Mari­na, Cal­i­for­nia by the FAA, which allows it to begin flight test­ing of its first pro­duc­tion pro­to­type.

The air­craft is expect­ed to become the first ever eVTOL air­craft to be deliv­ered to a cus­tomer when it moves to Edwards Air Force Base in 2024 to be oper­at­ed by Joby as part of the Company’s Agili­ty Prime con­tract with the US Air Force, worth up to $131 mil­lion. Joby has been fly­ing full size air­craft since 2017 and its pre-pro­duc­tion pro­to­type air­craft have flown more than 30,000 miles since 2019.

JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO of Joby, said: “We are proud to have launched pro­duc­tion in our home state of Cal­i­for­nia. Toyota’s sup­port has been indis­pens­able in help­ing us reach this point.”

Cal­i­for­nia Gov­er­nor Gavin New­som vis­it­ed Joby’s facil­i­ties on Sun­day to meet with Joby team mem­bers and cel­e­brate the Company’s progress.

“Cal­i­for­nia is proud to be home to some of the world’s most inno­v­a­tive com­pa­nies. Joby is chang­ing the game when it comes to the next fron­tier of flight: zero emis­sion avi­a­tion,” said Gov­er­nor Gavin New­som.

“Our world-lead­ing cli­mate action relies on the tech­no­log­i­cal advances and pio­neer­ing spir­it of the pri­vate sec­tor. Cre­at­ing jobs and cut­ting pol­lu­tion — that’s the Cal­i­for­nia way.”

Joby plans to begin com­mer­cial pas­sen­ger oper­a­tions in 2025 and recent­ly part­nered with Delta Air Lines to deliv­er seam­less, emis­sions-free trav­el for Delta cus­tomers trav­el­ing to and from air­ports.

Gail Grim­mett, Senior Vice Pres­i­dent, Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Per­for­mance and Strate­gic Part­ner­ships at Delta, said: “The inno­va­tion know-how and spir­it that dri­ves Joby made today’s cel­e­bra­tion pos­si­ble and we’re excit­ed to march one step clos­er to offer­ing this ser­vice to our cus­tomers.”

The air­craft will now under­go ini­tial flight test­ing before being deliv­ered to Edwards Air Force Base in Cal­i­for­nia where it will be used to demon­strate a range of poten­tial logis­tics uses.