Having completed more than 1,000 remotely piloted flight tests with its eVTOL prototypes over the past 10 years, Joby Aviation has successfully flown its electric air taxi with pilots on board for the first time. Joby announced today that four pilots have now flown the company’s preproduction prototype outside its testing facility in Marina, California.
According to Joby, the crewed flight tests involved some hovering and “semi-thrustborne flight,” which means the aircraft mostly relied on its tilting propellers to provide vertical lift while traveling at a low speed. The pilots have not yet completed a full transition flight, in which the vehicle transitions from hover to fully wing-borne, horizontal cruise flight. Joby became the first eVTOL developer to complete a transition flight with an uncrewed, remotely piloted prototype in 2017.
Joby chief test pilot James “Buddy” Denham led the crewed flight campaign, which the company says was designed to evaluate and collect data on the aircraft’s handling qualities and pilot control interfaces. The pilots tried out several maneuvers, including vertical takeoffs and landings, forward acceleration and deceleration, and runway centerline tracking.
“Having helped design and test flight controls for a wide variety of aircraft, including all three variants of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, nothing compares to the simplicity and grace of the Joby aircraft,” said Denham. “After completing more than 400 vertical take-offs and landings from the ground, it is a privilege to sit in the cockpit of our aircraft and experience first-hand the ease and intuitive nature of the design that the Joby team has developed.”
While Joby pilots have been flying the five-seat aircraft in Marina, the U.S. Air Force is also preparing to conduct its first crewed flights with Joby’s eVTOL aircraft. Last week Joby announced that it had delivered its first aircraft to Edwards Air Force Base in California. The company has agreed to deliver up to nine production-conforming aircraft to the Air Force as part of its $131 million Afwerx Agility Prime contract.
The aircraft Joby delivered to Edwards is the first to come off the company’s pilot production line in Marina. Joby also recently announced its plans to build a scaled production facility in Dayton, Ohio, where the company intends to manufacture hundreds of aircraft per year. It intends to have the aircraft certified for commercial air taxi operations in 2025, with up to four passengers on board.
