Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft manufacturer Joby Aviation is making moves to ramp up production and train an initial cohort of eVTOL air taxi pilots.
The company this week shared a pair of key updates, announcing plans to acquire a 700,000-square-foot manufacturing facility near Dayton, Ohio, and the delivery of a flight simulator—the first of two it will receive from manufacturer CAE—to its production and pilot training facility in Marina, California.
The new manufacturing site will complement Joby’s existing Dayton production hub, which sits on a 140-acre site at Dayton International Airport (KDAY). Joby in 2023 said it plans to invest as much as $500 million to prepare the site to churn out 500 air taxis per year.
Final assembly of Joby production prototype aircraft takes place in Marina, where its recently expanded pilot production line rolls out two aircraft per month. With an additional 700,000 square feet of manufacturing space, the company believes it can ramp up to four aircraft per month in 2027. It began acquiring the equipment needed for that expansion in December.
Joby said the site is “ready for immediate use” and will begin operations this year.
“This site will not only support our near-term plan to double production, it can also serve as a base for significant future growth, as we turn a decade of engineering into the manufacturing scale the market is now demanding,” said founder and CEO JoeBen Bevirt.
Joby’s manufacturing ramp-up will coincide with the impending eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP), during which the FAA will permit precertified air taxis to conduct real-world trials—including certain operations for revenue. eIPP flights are expected to begin this summer.
Joby is also preparing for type inspection authorization (TIA) testing, during which FAA test pilots will evaluate the air taxi—one of the final steps of type certification. It began building certification-ready propeller blades in Dayton in October and powered on its first TIA-conforming aircraft in November.
Training the First Joby Pilots
At the same time, Joby is laying the groundwork to train the first generation of commercially certified eVTOL pilots.
The company has worked with NASA and the FAA to model certain aspects of air taxi operations, such as noise and integration at airports. Its prototype aircraft have flown more than 50,000 miles. But nobody outside of a handful of Joby and military pilots is authorized to operate the air taxi.
Flight simulators could help change that. Joby on Monday said it received and has begun installing the first of two simulators based around CAE’s 3000-series model for helicopters. It aims to certify the fixed-base simulator as a Level 7 flight training device.
The company is seeking Level C qualification for a second, full-flight CAE simulator, designed to mirror the air taxi’s six axes of motion. Together, Joby said, they will be capable of training up to 250 pilots annually.
The company said both simulators will be “equipped with the same simulation technology used to train pilots for the world’s leading airlines.” They feature a 300-by-130-degree field of view of a simulated landscape powered by CAE’s Prodigy Image Generator, which uses artificial intelligence and the same technology used in video games such as Fortnite. Per Joby, it will generate 3D buildings and a “lifelike” urban setting, mirroring its planned operations in cities such as New York and Los Angeles.
Deepening the immersion are audio cues, turbulence, and vibrations. Joby said the simulators will be able to mimic real-world conditions, such as the flow of wind around buildings.
“These high-fidelity simulators are designed to be a digital twin of our aircraft, providing us a means of compliance and a robust tool to help prepare our pilots for the unique demands of high-volume operations in urban environments,” said Bonny Simi, president of operations for Joby.
The FAA’s special federal aviation regulation (SFAR) for powered-lift pilot certification and operations creates a pathway for OEMs such as Joby to use these simulators for training.
To fly an eVTOL, the SFAR requires pilots to add a powered-lift category rating to their existing commercial certificate and instrument rating, as well as a type rating for the specific model. Since many air taxis have been developed without dual pilot controls, the FAA created alternative training pathways for models with single controls—one of which permits training in a full-flight simulator (FFS) ahead of solo flights in the aircraft.
“The pilot can gain the necessary experience through a series of demonstration flights and solo experience, complete a practical test in a Level C FFS, and then conduct abbreviated operating experience in the powered-lift to become fully qualified and fly in the NAS,” the SFAR reads.
At the commercial pilot certificate level, the SFAR reduces the required pilot-in-command (PIC) flight time for powered-lift from 50 to 35 hours. Of those, 15 can be completed in a Level C or higher FFS. It also allows Part 135 pilot checks to count toward the practical test requirements for a powered-lift rating, with certain conditions.
Simulators can receive interim Part 60 approval if the OEM can collect enough predicted or engineering data that is backed up by at least some real-world flying. The FAA is also studying the use of virtual reality, extended reality, and mixed reality in FSTDs for qualification of all aircraft—not just powered-lift.
Joby has already secured FAA Part 141 pilot school permissions, allowing it to begin training airplane pilots before the air taxi is added post-certification. It will next look to secure Part 142 training center authorization, extending training to the CAE simulators once they are qualified.
With both permissions, Joby says it could train an airline pilot to fly the air taxi in just six weeks. It can also help prospective air taxi pilots obtain an initial certification and rating that could be amended with powered-lift permissions in the future.
