Joby Aviation has begun final assembly of the first production-conforming aircraft at its initial manufacturing facility in Marina, California.

With 130,000 square feet of manufacturing space built out, Joby believes this to be a first for the electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) industry, with the aircraft manufactured on a production line, according to internally-released engineering drawings, and under the oversight of a complete release of the company's Quality Management System.

Having built and tested the major aerostructures of the aircraft, the wing, tail, and fuselage, Joby is now beginning the process of fusing the aerostructures together and installing the wiring, electronics, actuation and propulsion systems. The aircraft is expected to begin flight testing within six months.

“Beginning final assembly of our first production-conforming aircraft is an incredible achievement for the Joby team. Unlike a prototype, this aircraft was built with a fully-implemented Quality Management System, meaning we are able to trace and verify every aspect of the production of this aircraft andndash; a huge step towards manufacturing at scale,” says Didier Papadopoulos, Head of Aircraft OEM at Joby.

Joby's Quality Management System includes tracking and documentation of every part on the aircraft, configuration management of engineering drawings, environmental conditions during fabrication and actions taken by manufacturing technicians. The system is reviewed regularly by the FAA as part of the company's preparation to receive a production certificate following the type certification of its eVTOL aircraft.

Concurrently with low-rate aircraft production in Marina, Joby is actively evaluating proposals from a number of states to support the construction of its Phase 1 production facility.

Joby 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 (“Means of Compliance”) that were defined during the first stage of the process (“Certification Basis”).

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.

It 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 (“Testing and Analysis”) and stage five (“Show and Verify”). 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.