Flying taxi developer Joby expands pilot production in Marina
Joby Aviation is developing an electrically powered, vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL) that will be used to operate an air taxi service. This makes it a competitor to start-ups such as Archer (USA) and Xpeng Aeroht (China). The company has now announced that it has expanded its presence in Marina and intends to create ‘hundreds of full-time jobs’ in the process. In addition to expanded pilot production, Marina will support a number of initiatives, including the first FAA production certification, compliant ground and flight test components, pilot training simulators and aircraft maintenance.
The site is one of four Joby facilities in the US. The company has its headquarters in Santa Cruz, California, where it works on system architecture, among other things. Joby’s specialists for the powertrain and electronics are based at the San Carlos site, also in California. And in Dayton, Ohio, the company has a newly renovated facility that will manufacture and test aircraft components for Joby’s pilot production line.
“Reimagining urban mobility takes speed, scale, and precision manufacturing. Our expanded manufacturing footprint in both California and Ohio is preparing us to do just that,” commented Eric Allison, Chief Product Officer. Most recently, Joby successfully tested a hydrogen-electric air taxi demonstrator alongside its battery-electric aircraft with a flight of around 842 kilometres. The eVTOL is the result of several years of collaboration between Joby Aviation and H2FLY, Joby’s wholly owned subsidiary.
Toyota, another major partner, is also involved. “Toyota engineers are deeply integrated with the Joby team, providing counsel to support Joby’s work across design, manufacturing, and quality,” the American company wrote. Toyota also helps with the optimisation of processes, the rationalisation of assembly and advises on the development of customer-specific tools to speed up production.
The background to this is that Joby received a further investment of half a billion dollars from Toyota in autumn 2024. The Japanese company has been one of Joby’s financial backers for some time. However, the new cash injection significantly exceeds the previous investments, totalling 394 million US dollars. One reason for Toyota’s support: in 2023, the two companies signed a long-term agreement under which Toyota will supply important drive and control components for the production of Joby’s aircraft.
0 Comments