Joby's Year in Review
Reaching New Heights: Our Top 10 Moments of 2022
This is a repost from Joby’s Year in Review
In 2022, we focused on three key goals: certifying our aircraft, scaling our manufacturing, and preparing for operations. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of our team, we made tremendous strides in each of those areas, laying the foundation for a faster, cleaner, and quieter way to carry people through their lives.
This year, we flew faster (205+ mph), higher (11,300+ feet), farther (10,800+ miles) and for a greater amount of time (3+ hours in a single day) than ever before. As we take a look back, we’re incredibly grateful to have also accomplished many “firsts” along the way. From hard-earned certification milestones to game-changing partnerships, here are our top 10 moments of 2022 (in no particular order!).
Received our Part 135 Air Carrier Certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration (FFA) – ahead of schedule. The Part 135 Air Carrier Certificate is required for Joby to begin on-demand commercial air taxi operations in cities and communities across the United States. Receiving this certificate ahead of schedule allowed us to commence trial operations using existing aircraft to ensure our software, operations, and procedures are ready for launch as soon as our eVTOL aircraft is certified.
Completed two of four Systems Reviews required by the FAA as part of our aircraft type certification program. Along our path to certification, we’ll undergo a series of four FAA audits where subject matter experts from the agency closely examine our aircraft’s overall safety architecture and our company-wide approach to developing complex safety-critical aircraft systems. We’ve now passed two of the four required System Reviews, demonstrating that our aircraft and development processes are on track to satisfy the FAA’s expectations for system-level safety, redundancy, and overall aircraft architecture.
Became the first eVTOL aircraft to submit an area-specific certification plan (ASCP) to the FAA – and successfully submitted three more. Joby continues to lead the way in certification of eVTOL aircraft with the FAA. In 2022, we’ve had more than 400 Means of Compliance statements accepted, enabling us to submit and receive acceptance for four area-specific certification plans. These documents lay out the combination of design reports, analysis and testing that it will employ to demonstrate compliance with rigorous FAA safety standards for each functional area of the aircraft. You can read more about our approach to certification here.
Announced a multi-year, multi-market commercial and operational partnership with Delta Airlines to pioneer home-to-airport transportation for customers. Our partnership with Delta, the world’s leading airline, will integrate a Joby-operated service into Delta’s customer-facing channels. The first-of-its-kind arrangement will provide customers who travel with Delta through New York and Los Angeles the opportunity to reserve a seat for seamless, short-range journeys to and from city airports with zero operating emissions.
Completed acoustic testing with NASA and successfully demonstrated the aircraft’s revolutionary low noise profile in urban areas. NASA’s measurements show just how quiet our aircraft is. During take-off and landing, the sound of our aircraft is comparable to normal conversation, while in flight at altitude, we expect the sound will barely be perceptible against the ambient environment of cities.
Grew our partnership with the Department of Defense’s Agility Prime program and brought the potential value of the contract to more than $75M. As Joby works toward our goal of launching a passenger ridesharing service, we are grateful for the support of our defense partners and the opportunity it presents to achieve real-world flight operations in advance of commercial service. This partnership supports our work on technological enhancements that extend the capabilities of our aircraft and gives us access to testing facilities, early operational experience for government customers, and a partial offset to our research and development costs.
Opened our doors to investors, press, and the world to demonstrate the possibilities in electric flight with today’s technology. In October, we hosted over a hundred guests at our manufacturing and flight test facilities in Marina, California for the first-ever Joby Field Trip – an exciting opportunity for us to share the progress we’ve made over a decade of hard work and a glimpse of what will come next. We also invited CNBC to film a documentary about our vision and our partnership with Delta.
Formally applied for our aircraft to be certified for use in the UK and Japan. We became the first eVTOL company to apply for an FAA type certificate to be validated by both the Japanese Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) and the United Kingdom’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). We believe both markets hold considerable opportunity for eVTOLs to provide a new form of clean and affordable urban and regional connectivity.
Scaled manufacturing with our pilot production plant in Marina, CA. In 2022, we built out our 13,000 square feet pilot production facility in Marina, CA, where we continued to progress with the manufacture of our first production-intent aircraft, with the tail section now complete and assembly of the wing and fuselage well under way. This year alone, we’ve machined 27,000+ metal parts and fabricated 1,600+ composite parts – all in support of ramping up manufacturing of our production aircraft.
Unveiled a Living Lab passenger terminal in partnership with Skyports Infrastructure. In the future of everyday flight, Joby riders will fly quickly and quietly from their starting point to their destination, seamlessly navigating skyports to transfer between Joby flights and first- or last-mile ground transportation. The Living Lab will serve as a prototype for us to conduct customer research and design the perfect experience for our future terminals.
We look forward to sharing our progress with you in the year ahead, and we wish you all a happy and healthy 2023.