NTSB: Joby Aviation Air Taxi Prototype ‘Substantially Damaged’ in Crash

A National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report says Joby’s electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft ‘experienced a component failure.’

Thom Patterson

Tuesday, March 08, 2022 at 01:32 PM ET

Verified

Joby's eVTOL design is propelled by six tilt-rotors and powered by lithium-ion batteries. [Courtesy: Joby Aviation]

Key Takeaways:

A Joby Aviation eVTOL prototype crashed due to a component failure during a remote-piloted test flight, resulting in substantial damage and an aircraft fire, though no injuries were reported.
The accident occurred while the aircraft was flying at 272 mph, significantly above its designed cruise speed of 200 mph, during an accelerated flight test campaign to explore its performance limits.
Joby Aviation acknowledges that accidents are a possibility in experimental flight programs designed to determine aircraft performance limits, and tests are conducted with safety measures like remote piloting in uninhabited areas.
The company continues its flight test campaign with a second similar prototype, which was not involved in the accident.

See a mistake? Contact us.

Last month’s test flight accident of a Joby Aviation electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxi prototype occurred after it experienced a component failure, resulting in substantial damage to the aircraft, according to a preliminary report released Tuesday by the National Transportation Safety Board.

The report says no one was killed or injured in the February 16 accident, which occurred while the aircraft was being piloted by remote control in a rural area of California. The report offered no additional details, including the nature of the component failure.