Joby achieves testing landmark with piloted aircraft

Joby Aviation has reached a landmark moment in its aircraft test program, successfully completing flights with a full transition from vertical to cruise flight, and back again, with a pilot onboard. Transitioning from vertical to horizontal flight is a key design attribute of the Joby aircraft, allowing it to take-off and land vertically like a helicopter, while maintaining the efficiency and speed of a conventional, fixed-wing aircraft in forward flight. This unique capability will enable Joby to deliver rapid and seamless passenger service directly to popular destinations.

Joby purposefully set out to demonstrate remotely-piloted transition first, completing the first transition of a full-scale, prototype aircraft in 2017. The Company has since completed more than 40,000 miles of test flights across multiple aircraft, including hundreds of transitions from vertical take-off to cruise flight as well as more than a hundred flights with a pilot onboard in hover and low-speed flight.

Since completing a landmark first full transition flight with a pilot onboard on April 22, 2025, the Company has completed multiple transition flights with three different pilots at the controls, as Joby becomes the first company to routinely perform inhabited testing of an electric air taxi from hover to wingborne flight.

Didier Papadopolous, President of Aircraft OEM at Joby, commented: “Achieving this milestone is hugely significant for Joby. It not only demonstrates the high level of confidence we have in the performance of the aircraft as we prepare for commercial service in Dubai, it also paves the way to starting TIA flight testing with FAA pilots onboard.We have taken a very methodical approach to achieving this long-planned milestone, with an immense amount of testing, both in the air and on the ground, helping form a solid foundation that allowed us to move from one historic flight to routine pilot-on-board transitions almost overnight.”

The first pilot-on-board transition was flown by Joby Chief Test Pilot James “Buddy” Denham and took place at Joby’s flight test facility in Marina, California. Denham, who has flown more than 60 different aircraft types, joined Joby in 2019 after retiring from Naval Air Systems Command where he led the research and development of the joint US-UK Unified Control Concept that was successfully integrated into the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter.

The flight saw Denham execute a vertical take-off in the latest aircraft to roll off Joby’s Marina production line (N544JX), before climbing out and accelerating to fully wingborne flight and returning for a vertical landing on the runway.

Commenting on the flight, Denham said: “I’m honored to have played a role in this historic moment. Designing and flying an aircraft that can seamlessly transition between vertical and cruise flight has long been considered one of the most challenging technological feats in aerospace, but our team has developed and built an aircraft that makes it feel like an everyday task. The aircraft flew exactly as expected, with excellent handling qualities and low pilot workload.”

In preparation for achieving pilot-on-board transition flight, Joby completed thousands of tests in the Company’s Integrated Test Lab, a ground-based facility which replicates all of the major systems of the aircraft, allowing the team to test propulsion units, actuators, and other aircraft hardware and software that is identical to the Company’s prototype aircraft before taking to the air.

Joby also completed a series of flight tests at Edwards Air Force Base designed to confirm the redundancy present throughout the aircraft’s design, with remote, ground-based pilots handling simulated motor-out, battery-out, and other potential in-flight events. In all cases, the aircraft performed as expected, enabling Joby pilots to continue safe flight and a controlled, vertical landing, even when relying on just four of the aircraft’s six propellers.

As well as completing testing at its base in California, Joby has also previously completed demonstration flights in New York City, Japan, and Korea. Joby currently has five aircraft in its flight test fleet, with two delivered to Edwards Air Force Base for testing in conjunction with the Company’s defense customers.

Joby’s all-electric air taxi is designed to transport a pilot and up to four passengers at speeds of up to 200 mph (321 km/h), offering high-speed mobility with a fraction of the noise produced by helicopters and zero operating emissions. Joby remains on track to deliver an aircraft to Dubai in the middle of 2025 to complete flight testing ahead of first passenger flights in the region.