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Joby Rolls Out First Aircraft from Production Line

The California-based manufacturer also names Toyota executive to its board of directors.

The first production prototype rolled out Wednesday with fanfare as a significant milestone for Joby Aviation and partner Toyota. [Courtesy: Joby Aviation]
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Key Takeaways:

  • Joby Aviation unveiled its first production prototype eVTOL aircraft from its Pilot Production Facility, a significant industry milestone complete with a special airworthiness certificate for flight testing.
  • The rollout event featured strong support from key partners, including Toyota (whose CEO will join Joby's board and who assisted with production line design), and California Governor Gavin Newsom.
  • This prototype is slated for delivery to the U.S. Air Force as part of a $131 million contract, potentially the industry's first customer delivery, and Joby also secured a $100 million equity investment from SK Telecom to deepen their partnership in aerial ridesharing.
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The building blocks to achieve production must come together concurrently with type certification, if an aircraft manufacturer has any hope of launching a new product in a timely fashion. To this end, Joby Aviation has been formulating its processes along with the tooling, hardware, software, and teams required to achieve the goal of eVTOL success.

On Wednesday, Joby revealed a major milestone in the road to a type certificated production aircraft with the rollout of its first model built on the company’s Pilot Production Facility’s final assembly line in Marina, California. Derived from released engineering drawings under the OEM’s purpose-built quality management system, the production prototype makes for a “major step” on the road to aircraft manufacturing at the scale that Joby projects in both its short- and long-term plans.

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