Joby Aviation, a California-based company developing all-electric aircraft, today announced it has completed the second of five stages required by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to certify its revolutionary electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft for commercial passenger use.
In the second stage of the type certification process, a company identifies the ways in which it will demonstrate it has met the regulatory intent of the safety rules that were defined during the first stage of the process.
Joby believes it is the first eVTOL company to reach this milestone, having also been the first eVTOL company to complete stage one and have its Certification Basis published in the Federal Register. Achieving this goal moves Joby one step closer to its target of launching commercial passenger service by 2025.
Joby has also already made substantial progress in the third stage of the certification process (“Certification Plans”), with four area-specific certification plans (ASCPs) submitted to the FAA as of November and the Company’s first equipment-level qualification test plan submitted to the FAA, enabling for-credit qualification testing to proceed. Progress also continues in stage four and stage five. Joby provided a summary of the five stages of type certification in its Q2 2022 Shareholder Letter.
It is typical for a small portion of the Means of Compliance to remain open to allow for further collaboration on minor design changes and improvements that may occur later in the certification process. With 94% of our Means of Compliance now accepted by the FAA, Joby considers the second stage essentially complete.
