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Joby Aviation is a developer of electric-powered eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) personal air vehicles. The company provides airframe design, fabrication, aerodynamic analysis, and electric motor design. The air vehicles designed by Job Aviation are intended for air taxi services. Joby Aviation was founded in 2009 and has offices in Santa Cruz and San Carlos, California. Unlike competitor eVTOL aircraft manufacturers that plan to sell aircraft to customers such as airlines and logistics companies, Joby's business model is similar to a rideshare app.
In February of 2021, the company announced that it was intending to go public. This came after the company purchased Uber's flying taxi division. The IPO came through a reverse merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). In Joby Aviation's case, the SPAC was Reinvent Technology Partners, known as a "blank check" company run by Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus. In August of 2021, Job Aviation was listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol JOBY with a post-transaction value at USD $4.5 billion. This was reported as the largest in the industry at the time of the IPO and left Joby with $1.6 billion in total capital to commercialize its air taxi operations.
In June of 2023, Joby received certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the company's production assembly line and the eVTOL aircraft coming off that production line. The certification was considered a step toward flight testing of the company's electric air taxi, which in turn is a step closer to FAA approvals for commercial operations.
The company has stated it planned to begin commercial operations in 2025. Further, the company announced it received a Special Airworthiness Certificate from the FAA, allowing flight testing of production prototypes without passengers. Following this certification, in July of 2023, Job received clearer guidance from United States regulators on when air taxis may fly, with the FAA laying out an implementation plan showing how eVTOL aircraft could be in commercial use by 2028, with limited operations as early as 2025.
Joby's eVTOL aircraft is designed with six rotors. These rotors allow the aircraft to land and take off vertically like a helicopter, and once they've reached a preferred altitude, the rotors are rotated to be horizontal, allowing the aircraft to fly at speeds up to 200 MPH. The electric aircraft is designed to carry a pilot and four passengers up to a distance of 100 miles on a single charge, which would be sufficient for most air taxi operations. Further, Joby claims the aircraft is nearly silent in cruise mode.
