Joby Aviation has flown its electric air taxi between two California airports in what the company describes as a major step toward commercial operations. The piloted eVTOL flight traveled from Marina Municipal (OAR) to Monterey Regional (MRY), marking the first time an electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft has completed such a trip between public airports. According to Joby, the 12-minute flight included vertical takeoff, wingborne cruise, and integration into Monterey’s controlled airspace, where the aircraft sequenced with other traffic before landing.
The flight demonstrated Joby’s ability to operate in FAA-managed airspace alongside conventional aircraft, including conducting a holding pattern for air traffic spacing.
“Successfully flying from Marina to Monterey showcased operations of our aircraft integrated in the broader transportation network and further validated its performance to ensure we’re prepared for service on day one,” Didier Papadopoulos, president of Aircraft OEM at Joby, said in a company statement.
Joby said the test provides critical data for both aircraft certification and pilot training, underscoring its progress toward FAA approval. The company has logged more than 40,000 miles across its test fleet and recently moved its first conforming aircraft into final assembly in preparation for Type Inspection Authorization trials. With plans to launch a commercial air taxi service after certification, Joby is targeting operations in Los Angeles and New York City.
It’s a drone that can carry a person.
Their ‘test fleet’ that covered all these miles is a couple of Cirruses.
Oh. I was wondering how they’ve done 40k miles and never done a cross country flight.
They are a 135 operator that uses Cirruses. Odd how an AI written article did not mention that.
Matt, what’s the deal? Cirrus or evtol thingy?
Well, they are claiming 40,000 miles, not 400,000.
If these things were truly safe, and the company has confidence in them, 90% of the flights would be with people in them. The exciting milestone would be to make this flight autonomously.
These things are not safe and they know it.
Here’s the thing: Humans make mistakes. See: “400K miles” in a comment above, and the minor discrepancy between “a hold pattern” and “a holding pattern” in the article. To be fair, regurgitated press releases are, and have always been fodder for AvWeb readers. We want someone to keep up with, and pre-digest, the latest vendor announcements for us so we don’t have to wade through paragraphs of self-aggrandizing blather ourselves.
It you want to see how much faith you can put into a press release (much less a synopsis of one) just scroll to the very bottom of the release and read the “Forward-Looking Statements” section. Essentially, Joby is reporting that they made a 10-mile manned (piloted, not autonomous) flight and did not create a smoking hole, so please invest in our venture. You know, baby steps.
This has been going on since Ben Franklin. In the seventies, I would get such announcements from military vendors over ARPANET. AvWeb, and it predecessors, provided a welcome layer of insulation by chewing that cud, and presenting us with an edited synopsis from a pilot’s viewpoint.
Unlike other AvWeb contributors, Matt appears to have the minimum necessary aviation credentials. Perhaps more than are required to feed a press release into ChatGPT Sadly, we have no way of knowing.
And that’s the damnable thing.
Oops. Thanks for correcting me.
You have to admit that some of the details are vague…
Amazing. A 12 minute flight and they are marching towards commercial operations. I doubt it. What is the longest flight possible and how long does it take to recharge. This is an interesting toy but it is not a viable commercial aircraft.
One way to know is to move to where the real authors have gone, after being fired here.
To a site where they eschew the shortcuts and still have real aviation journalists, instead of stenographers and AI.
Firecrown has decided those things don’t matter. And when my subscriptions to their formerly must-read magazines are up, I won’t be renewing, for the first time in decades.
Most of us don’t like the obvious hype. They can’t do what they promise, and probably never will be able to.
In the meantime, they’ll burn up lots of VC $$$$ that might have gone into something with actual promise. Oh, well. You know what they say about a fool and his money…
Been there since day 1, FBR.
I believe that they can do what they’re promising. The timeline is probably overly optimistic but to say that they will never do it seems like saying that humans will never be able walk on the moon. I’m not sure where you are on that subject but I personally believe that they already have. As far as the hype, it’s part of the modern day communication/sales culture. This article is mild compared to articles trying to convince people how to vote.
Yeah, I think you basically got it. They are not promising anything impossible. And it could happen. And I think it will, eventually, roughly around the time people start walking on the moon again, which did actually happen several times (I saw it live on tv…).
The P-51 went from drawing board to flying prototype, to production in months, not decades. True story. But things have changed. The kind of bold, rapid advancement we used to see is becoming much, much more infrequent.
I would place a long bet that they don’t fly 6 real, paying passengers, at once, on actual journeys within 20 years, on trips over 30nm, in an evtol. But they might in an electric airplane, or helicopter… That just won’t be newsworthy.
I have no doubt men have landed on the moon, if that’s what you are implying.
I still doubt these guys can do what they say, but I’ll be interested to see if they can.
The fact that the hype is to be expected now doesn’t excuse it, nor does it convince me it’s worthy of investment.
I see no correlation with voting or campaign ads. But making that comparison only further lowers the bar on honesty.
No worries. I sometimes suffer from the same ailment.
And you’re right, there is an unfortunately large, and seemingly growing element who think ignorance is cute.
And others who just suffer from the lack of basic scientific education we likely all got well before the 8th grade. Because, as we all know, facts, especially scientific ones, are racist!
8 years, two months between JFK commitment to go to the moon and first moon landing. Twice that and counting between Joeben’s unfulfilled promise to introduce another airport shuttle service. Man, this guy wasted two billion to try to go to the airport.. That’s the baldest his generation is capable of.
What is everyone’s clue that this article was written by AI? I don’t see any obvious indications, just the usual minimal information that comes from a company’s press release. As for the timeline of certified operations with Joby, everything to do with electric and VTOL seems doomed to failure in the foreseeable future.