The private charter marketplace signed agreements with Horizon Aircraft, Overair, and Electra.aero to acquire as many as 280 aircraft.
By Jack Daleo
January 19, 2024
JetSetGo has signed agreements to acquire Overair’s Butterfly (left), Electra.aero’s eSTOL, and Horizon Aircraft’s Cavorite X7—all full- or hybrid-electric designs. [Courtesy: JetSetGo]
Three North American manufacturers will deliver electric air taxis to India to help jump-start the country’s advanced air mobility (AAM) industry.
JetSetGo, an Indian marketplace for private jet and helicopter charters that also operates its own fleet, on Friday announced strategic partnerships with Horizon Aircraft, Overair, and Electra.aero to order as many as 280 aircraft, which would value the deal at a whopping $1.3 billion.
Each of the electric or hybrid-electric aircraft will bring unique capabilities to JetSetGo’s fleet, which comprises five midsize Hawkers and six other aircraft, ranging from large cabin jets to helicopters.
Horizon’s vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) Cavorite X7 and Electra’s ultra-short takeoff and landing (STOL) nine-seater—both hybrid-electric designs—will be the first to fly JetSetGo routes since they can utilize existing infrastructure, the company said. Overair’s Butterfly electric VTOL (eVTOL) air taxi will follow as Indian cities add the necessary infrastructure, such as charging stations.
The three designs will offer an “optimal mix” for five use cases identified by JetSetGo: airport transfers, regional connectivity, intercity commute, intracity shuttles, and urban air taxis. The company says India—which is plagued by road congestion issues, infrastructure challenges, and aviation emissions—will make an “ideal testbed” for AAM services.
“Our partnership with these three leading innovators will introduce unique technologies like ‘blown lift’ and ‘fan-in-wing’ lift systems, hybrid and electric propulsion, and super-quiet optimal speed tilt rotors to India,” said Kanika Tekriwal, co-founder and CEO of JetSetGo. “We want to lead the transformation of urban and regional connectivity and believe we have the right partners and technologies to make this vision a reality.”
The agreements lock JetSetGo into 150 firm orders—50 from each manufacturer—for a combined $780 million. But all three contracts include the option for it to acquire more aircraft.
Horizon, which announced its agreement earlier this week, will ship an initial batch of 50 Cavorite X7s to JetSetGo for $250 million. The firm has the option to acquire 50 more, which would double that deal’s value. Overair and Electra did not specify the initial order value or number of options JetSetGo could acquire.
Horizon founder and CEO Brandon Robinson characterizes the company’s X7 as a “normal” aircraft with eVTOL capabilities, rather than an eVTOL with features of a traditional airplane. It uses a patented “fan-in-wing” configuration, similar to the Lilium Jet: 14 electric ducted fans are embedded in the wing to provide lift. During cruise, movable surfaces cover the fans.
The X7’s mix of features from traditional and electric aircraft make it something of an amalgamation. It can take off vertically or conventionally from the runway, for example, and a gas-powered range extender can charge its batteries during cruise. The air taxi won’t reduce emissions as much as all-electric designs, but Horizon says it will offer greater range, speed, and payload.
“This evolution will serve as a catalyst to accelerate our growth by providing the resources to continue the development and testing of our practical, real-world-use hybrid eVTOL, the Cavorite X7,” said Robinson.
Like the X7, Overair’s Butterfly offers some unique capabilities. The eVTOL deploys two technologies the firm says have never been integrated on an eVTOL design: optimum speed tilt rotor (OSTR) and individual blade control (IBC).
OSTR, which varies propeller revolutions per minute during vertical, forward, and transition flight, acts as a power saver, reducing energy demand in hover by as much as 60 percent. IBC, which is being researched by the U.S. Navy, limits the vibration of each blade to reduce propeller load and enable safer, smoother flights.
The combination of OSTR and IBC produces efficient, quiet propulsion through nearly any weather, temperature, or altitude, Overair says. Butterfly also features four oversized rotors, large cabin, and payload of about 1,100 pounds—enough for five passengers and their luggage. The company says it is ideal for passenger, medical, cargo, and military applications.
“Butterfly will provide a safe, quiet, and efficient mobility solution for urban and regional transport across the broadest range of weather conditions and geographic environments,” said Valerie Manning, chief commercial officer at Overair. “In addition, the associated advanced air mobility ecosystem will create a multitude of jobs and fuel economic growth.”
As the lone all-electric VTOL manufacturer included in JetSetGo’s agreements, Overair will also support its new customer with infrastructure advisement, pilot training, infrastructure and software integration, operational guidance, and vertiport software integration.
Electra’s nine-seat design is also all-electric, but it won’t require VTOL infrastructure to get flying. The eSTOL design needs just 150 feet of runway for takeoff—that’s enabled through a unique technology called blown-lift, which allows the aircraft to take off at speeds as slow as a car driving through a residential neighborhood.
The eSTOL has a range of 500 nm and can carry up to 2,500 pounds of cargo. Compared to vertical takeoff alternatives, Electra claims the model offers more than twice the payload, 10 times the range, and 70 percent lower operating costs.
“Our aircraft’s unique ability to operate from soccer field-sized spaces, with the capacity to transport nine passengers up to 500 miles enables JetSetGo to identify new routes using eSTOL capability and deliver sustainable, affordable air connections to India’s communities previously underserved by flight,” said Marc Ausman, chief product officer of Electra.
Electra’s design was part of another massive hybrid-electric aircraft order from Dallas-based regional air carrier JSX. In December, the semiprivate operator signed letters of intent to acquire as many as 332 aircraft, including 32 firm orders and 50 options from Electra. JSX will also purchase Aura Aero’s Era and Heart Aerospace’s ES-30.
Several other American operators, including Surf Air Mobility and Bristow Group, have agreed to order or retrofit hybrid-electric designs as they seek to introduce new, sustainable, and potentially more cost-effective aircraft to their routes. In India, meanwhile, travel conglomerate InterGlobe in November agreed to purchase as many as 200 Midnight air taxis from Archer Aviation.
JetSetGo has signed agreements to acquire Overair’s Butterfly (left), Electra.aero’s eSTOL, and Horizon Aircraft’s Cavorite X7—all full- or hybrid-electric designs. [Courtesy: JetSetGo]
Three North American manufacturers will deliver electric air taxis to India to help jump-start the country’s advanced air mobility (AAM) industry.
JetSetGo, an Indian marketplace for private jet and helicopter charters that also operates its own fleet, on Friday announced strategic partnerships with Horizon Aircraft, Overair, and Electra.aero to order as many as 280 aircraft, which would value the deal at a whopping $1.3 billion.
Each of the electric or hybrid-electric aircraft will bring unique capabilities to JetSetGo’s fleet, which comprises five midsize Hawkers and six other aircraft, ranging from large cabin jets to helicopters.
Horizon’s vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) Cavorite X7 and Electra’s ultra-short takeoff and landing (STOL) nine-seater—both hybrid-electric designs—will be the first to fly JetSetGo routes since they can utilize existing infrastructure, the company said. Overair’s Butterfly electric VTOL (eVTOL) air taxi will follow as Indian cities add the necessary infrastructure, such as charging stations.
The three designs will offer an “optimal mix” for five use cases identified by JetSetGo: airport transfers, regional connectivity, intercity commute, intracity shuttles, and urban air taxis. The company says India—which is plagued by road congestion issues, infrastructure challenges, and aviation emissions—will make an “ideal testbed” for AAM services.
“Our partnership with these three leading innovators will introduce unique technologies like ‘blown lift’ and ‘fan-in-wing’ lift systems, hybrid and electric propulsion, and super-quiet optimal speed tilt rotors to India,” said Kanika Tekriwal, co-founder and CEO of JetSetGo. “We want to lead the transformation of urban and regional connectivity and believe we have the right partners and technologies to make this vision a reality.”
The agreements lock JetSetGo into 150 firm orders—50 from each manufacturer—for a combined $780 million. But all three contracts include the option for it to acquire more aircraft.
Horizon, which announced its agreement earlier this week, will ship an initial batch of 50 Cavorite X7s to JetSetGo for $250 million. The firm has the option to acquire 50 more, which would double that deal’s value. Overair and Electra did not specify the initial order value or number of options JetSetGo could acquire.
Horizon founder and CEO Brandon Robinson characterizes the company’s X7 as a “normal” aircraft with eVTOL capabilities, rather than an eVTOL with features of a traditional airplane. It uses a patented “fan-in-wing” configuration, similar to the Lilium Jet: 14 electric ducted fans are embedded in the wing to provide lift. During cruise, movable surfaces cover the fans.
The X7’s mix of features from traditional and electric aircraft make it something of an amalgamation. It can take off vertically or conventionally from the runway, for example, and a gas-powered range extender can charge its batteries during cruise. The air taxi won’t reduce emissions as much as all-electric designs, but Horizon says it will offer greater range, speed, and payload.
“This evolution will serve as a catalyst to accelerate our growth by providing the resources to continue the development and testing of our practical, real-world-use hybrid eVTOL, the Cavorite X7,” said Robinson.
Like the X7, Overair’s Butterfly offers some unique capabilities. The eVTOL deploys two technologies the firm says have never been integrated on an eVTOL design: optimum speed tilt rotor (OSTR) and individual blade control (IBC).
OSTR, which varies propeller revolutions per minute during vertical, forward, and transition flight, acts as a power saver, reducing energy demand in hover by as much as 60 percent. IBC, which is being researched by the U.S. Navy, limits the vibration of each blade to reduce propeller load and enable safer, smoother flights.
The combination of OSTR and IBC produces efficient, quiet propulsion through nearly any weather, temperature, or altitude, Overair says. Butterfly also features four oversized rotors, large cabin, and payload of about 1,100 pounds—enough for five passengers and their luggage. The company says it is ideal for passenger, medical, cargo, and military applications.
“Butterfly will provide a safe, quiet, and efficient mobility solution for urban and regional transport across the broadest range of weather conditions and geographic environments,” said Valerie Manning, chief commercial officer at Overair. “In addition, the associated advanced air mobility ecosystem will create a multitude of jobs and fuel economic growth.”
As the lone all-electric VTOL manufacturer included in JetSetGo’s agreements, Overair will also support its new customer with infrastructure advisement, pilot training, infrastructure and software integration, operational guidance, and vertiport software integration.
Electra’s nine-seat design is also all-electric, but it won’t require VTOL infrastructure to get flying. The eSTOL design needs just 150 feet of runway for takeoff—that’s enabled through a unique technology called blown-lift, which allows the aircraft to take off at speeds as slow as a car driving through a residential neighborhood.
The eSTOL has a range of 500 nm and can carry up to 2,500 pounds of cargo. Compared to vertical takeoff alternatives, Electra claims the model offers more than twice the payload, 10 times the range, and 70 percent lower operating costs.
“Our aircraft’s unique ability to operate from soccer field-sized spaces, with the capacity to transport nine passengers up to 500 miles enables JetSetGo to identify new routes using eSTOL capability and deliver sustainable, affordable air connections to India’s communities previously underserved by flight,” said Marc Ausman, chief product officer of Electra.
Electra’s design was part of another massive hybrid-electric aircraft order from Dallas-based regional air carrier JSX. In December, the semiprivate operator signed letters of intent to acquire as many as 332 aircraft, including 32 firm orders and 50 options from Electra. JSX will also purchase Aura Aero’s Era and Heart Aerospace’s ES-30.
Several other American operators, including Surf Air Mobility and Bristow Group, have agreed to order or retrofit hybrid-electric designs as they seek to introduce new, sustainable, and potentially more cost-effective aircraft to their routes. In India, meanwhile, travel conglomerate InterGlobe in November agreed to purchase as many as 200 Midnight air taxis from Archer Aviation.
Horizon Aircraft Goes Public, Secures Order for Up to 100 Hybrid-Electric Models
The manufacturer signed a letter of intent with Indian regional air operator JetSetGo for the purchase of up to 100 aircraft, valued at up to $500 million.
By Jack Daleo
The manufacturer signed a letter of intent with Indian regional air operator JetSetGo for the purchase of up to 100 aircraft, valued at up to $500 million.
By Jack Daleo
January 17, 2024
Horizon Aircraft’s Cavorite X5 model, which will soon be replaced by the seven-seat Cavorite X7. [Courtesy: Horizon Aircraft]
Canadian manufacturer Horizon Aircraft is the latest advanced air mobility (AAM) firm to put down roots in Asia.
Horizon, maker of the seven-seat, hybrid-electric vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) Cavorite X7, on Tuesday announced an agreement with Indian regional air operator JetSetGo for the purchase of up to 100 aircraft. The deal, worth up to $500 million, comes within a week of the manufacturer’s initial public offering (IPO) on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
A letter of intent between Horizon and JetSetGo calls for the latter to purchase 50 X7s at $5 million apiece, for a total of $250 million. The Indian operator has the option to acquire 50 more aircraft, which would double the value of the agreement.
Capable of taking off vertically like a helicopter or conventionally from the runway, the X7 blends features of a traditional airplane with those of eVTOL air taxis. However, Horizon claims the design offers a greater range, speed, and payload than air taxi designs from Joby Aviation, Archer Aviation, Lilium, and EHang, considered four of the leading firms in the industry.
The X7 will have a variety of use cases: medical evacuation, critical supply delivery, disaster relief, and military missions, to name a few. But JetSetGo, which offers services such as private jet charter and aircraft management, will fly it on passenger-carrying AAM routes. The deal gives Horizon access to the most populous market on the planet.
“We ultimately decided to partner with a company with a deep operational and aerospace technology background that will deliver a product that will help usher in a new era of sustainable air travel, while also providing significant value for our customers,” said Kanika Tekriwal, co-founder and CEO of JetSetGo. “This partnership will help JetSetGo profitably enter new markets by leveraging the versatility of the Cavorite platform to bring about the vision of AAM in India.”
This week’s agreement comes just a few days after Horizon went public via a merger with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Pono Capital Three. As of Tuesday, the firm’s common stock is trading on the Nasdaq under the symbol “HOVR.”
Brandon Robinson, founder, CEO, and board chairman of Horizon, will continue to lead the company. Management team members Jason O’Neill (chief operating officer), Brian Robinson (chief engineer), and Brian Merker (chief financial officer) will also stay on.
A SPAC IPO can be a good way for a young firm to raise money, and many eVTOL manufacturers—including Archer, Joby, and Lilium—have gone that route. But they can also be tricky, as in the case of Archer. Following its 2021 merger, Archer brought in $242 million less revenue than expected after shareholders exercised redemption rights. Joby and Lilium also saw significantly lower proceeds than anticipated.
However, Horizon is bullish on its ability to buck the trend. And a large aircraft order within a few days of going public is a positive sign.
“This evolution will serve as a catalyst to accelerate our growth by providing the resources to continue the development and testing of our practical, real-world-use hybrid eVTOL, the Cavorite X7,” said Brandon Robinson.
Not Your Normal Aircraft
Horizon announced the Cavorite X7 in September as a replacement for its Cavorite X5, which was originally expected to become its flagship aircraft. But testing revealed that the design could be expanded from five seats to seven, and customers had been clamoring for a larger aircraft with lower passenger seat mile costs.
Enter the X7. Robinson characterized the hybrid-electric design as a “normal” aircraft with eVTOL capabilities, rather than an eVTOL with features of a traditional airplane.
The configuration is expected to reduce hydrocarbon emissions by up to 30 percent compared to conventional aircraft conducting the same missions—far from the zero-emission operations promised by all-electric air taxi manufacturers.
But the mixture of electric and conventional propulsion will deliver greater size, speed, range, and capacity, Horizon claims. At the same time, the company says it will reduce direct operating costs by up to 30 percent versus a helicopter conducting the same regional flight.
While the X7 is expected to fly missions spanning 43 to 434 nm, its maximum range of 500 sm (434 nm) exceeds the air taxi routes planned by Joby and Delta and Archer and United, for example. Its 250 mph (217 knots) top speed and 1,500-pound useful load—which rises to 1,800 pounds in conventional takeoff configuration—are also greater than Joby, Archer, Lilium, and EHang. Among those firms, only Lilium is building a seven-seater.
Lilium is also one of the few eVTOL firms that opted to produce lift using electric ducted fans embedded in the aircraft’s wings. Horizon too went with the fan-in-wing configuration, which the company says it has patented. Fourteen redundant electric ducted fans will be installed, but the X7 has successfully hovered with 30 percent of them disabled during testing. Movable surfaces cover the fans during cruise to boost lift across the wings and canards.
The X5 placed fans in both the wings and forward canards, with a pusher prop at the rear of the fuselage aiding in forward flight. It’s unclear whether the X7 will maintain that configuration.
Horizon’s design may eventually go full-electric, but it currently runs on a mixture of electric and gas. The hybrid power system can recharge the X7’s battery packs within 30 minutes between missions.
But using a range extender motor, it can also charge the batteries in the air when the aircraft flies like a conventional airplane: on fixed wings, in a low-drag configuration. The company claims the X7 can spend a whopping 98 percent of its mission flying this way—its patented HOVR wing system makes the transition after takeoff.
In addition, the X7 is designed for both VFR and IFR operations, capable of flying in inclement weather. Flight into known icing conditions, for example, is a certification goal, the company says. Certification will most likely happen in Canada: Horizon received development and type certification support for the X5 from Cert Center Canada (3C), an independent flight test and certification design approval organization approved by Transport Canada.
Horizon so far has yet to announce a manufacturing and entry into service projected timeline for the X7. Archer, Joby, and a few others are targeting commercial launches in 2025, while others, such as Boeing’s Wisk Aero or Overair, are looking further out.
Archer in November also laid plans for operations in India with a tentative order for up to 200 air taxis. In addition, Archer, Joby, Lilium, EHang, and others have signed agreements with firms in the Middle East, a nearby market with similar demand potential.
Horizon Aircraft’s Cavorite X5 model, which will soon be replaced by the seven-seat Cavorite X7. [Courtesy: Horizon Aircraft]
Canadian manufacturer Horizon Aircraft is the latest advanced air mobility (AAM) firm to put down roots in Asia.
Horizon, maker of the seven-seat, hybrid-electric vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) Cavorite X7, on Tuesday announced an agreement with Indian regional air operator JetSetGo for the purchase of up to 100 aircraft. The deal, worth up to $500 million, comes within a week of the manufacturer’s initial public offering (IPO) on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
A letter of intent between Horizon and JetSetGo calls for the latter to purchase 50 X7s at $5 million apiece, for a total of $250 million. The Indian operator has the option to acquire 50 more aircraft, which would double the value of the agreement.
Capable of taking off vertically like a helicopter or conventionally from the runway, the X7 blends features of a traditional airplane with those of eVTOL air taxis. However, Horizon claims the design offers a greater range, speed, and payload than air taxi designs from Joby Aviation, Archer Aviation, Lilium, and EHang, considered four of the leading firms in the industry.
The X7 will have a variety of use cases: medical evacuation, critical supply delivery, disaster relief, and military missions, to name a few. But JetSetGo, which offers services such as private jet charter and aircraft management, will fly it on passenger-carrying AAM routes. The deal gives Horizon access to the most populous market on the planet.
“We ultimately decided to partner with a company with a deep operational and aerospace technology background that will deliver a product that will help usher in a new era of sustainable air travel, while also providing significant value for our customers,” said Kanika Tekriwal, co-founder and CEO of JetSetGo. “This partnership will help JetSetGo profitably enter new markets by leveraging the versatility of the Cavorite platform to bring about the vision of AAM in India.”
This week’s agreement comes just a few days after Horizon went public via a merger with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Pono Capital Three. As of Tuesday, the firm’s common stock is trading on the Nasdaq under the symbol “HOVR.”
Brandon Robinson, founder, CEO, and board chairman of Horizon, will continue to lead the company. Management team members Jason O’Neill (chief operating officer), Brian Robinson (chief engineer), and Brian Merker (chief financial officer) will also stay on.
A SPAC IPO can be a good way for a young firm to raise money, and many eVTOL manufacturers—including Archer, Joby, and Lilium—have gone that route. But they can also be tricky, as in the case of Archer. Following its 2021 merger, Archer brought in $242 million less revenue than expected after shareholders exercised redemption rights. Joby and Lilium also saw significantly lower proceeds than anticipated.
However, Horizon is bullish on its ability to buck the trend. And a large aircraft order within a few days of going public is a positive sign.
“This evolution will serve as a catalyst to accelerate our growth by providing the resources to continue the development and testing of our practical, real-world-use hybrid eVTOL, the Cavorite X7,” said Brandon Robinson.
Not Your Normal Aircraft
Horizon announced the Cavorite X7 in September as a replacement for its Cavorite X5, which was originally expected to become its flagship aircraft. But testing revealed that the design could be expanded from five seats to seven, and customers had been clamoring for a larger aircraft with lower passenger seat mile costs.
Enter the X7. Robinson characterized the hybrid-electric design as a “normal” aircraft with eVTOL capabilities, rather than an eVTOL with features of a traditional airplane.
The configuration is expected to reduce hydrocarbon emissions by up to 30 percent compared to conventional aircraft conducting the same missions—far from the zero-emission operations promised by all-electric air taxi manufacturers.
But the mixture of electric and conventional propulsion will deliver greater size, speed, range, and capacity, Horizon claims. At the same time, the company says it will reduce direct operating costs by up to 30 percent versus a helicopter conducting the same regional flight.
While the X7 is expected to fly missions spanning 43 to 434 nm, its maximum range of 500 sm (434 nm) exceeds the air taxi routes planned by Joby and Delta and Archer and United, for example. Its 250 mph (217 knots) top speed and 1,500-pound useful load—which rises to 1,800 pounds in conventional takeoff configuration—are also greater than Joby, Archer, Lilium, and EHang. Among those firms, only Lilium is building a seven-seater.
Lilium is also one of the few eVTOL firms that opted to produce lift using electric ducted fans embedded in the aircraft’s wings. Horizon too went with the fan-in-wing configuration, which the company says it has patented. Fourteen redundant electric ducted fans will be installed, but the X7 has successfully hovered with 30 percent of them disabled during testing. Movable surfaces cover the fans during cruise to boost lift across the wings and canards.
The X5 placed fans in both the wings and forward canards, with a pusher prop at the rear of the fuselage aiding in forward flight. It’s unclear whether the X7 will maintain that configuration.
Horizon’s design may eventually go full-electric, but it currently runs on a mixture of electric and gas. The hybrid power system can recharge the X7’s battery packs within 30 minutes between missions.
But using a range extender motor, it can also charge the batteries in the air when the aircraft flies like a conventional airplane: on fixed wings, in a low-drag configuration. The company claims the X7 can spend a whopping 98 percent of its mission flying this way—its patented HOVR wing system makes the transition after takeoff.
In addition, the X7 is designed for both VFR and IFR operations, capable of flying in inclement weather. Flight into known icing conditions, for example, is a certification goal, the company says. Certification will most likely happen in Canada: Horizon received development and type certification support for the X5 from Cert Center Canada (3C), an independent flight test and certification design approval organization approved by Transport Canada.
Horizon so far has yet to announce a manufacturing and entry into service projected timeline for the X7. Archer, Joby, and a few others are targeting commercial launches in 2025, while others, such as Boeing’s Wisk Aero or Overair, are looking further out.
Archer in November also laid plans for operations in India with a tentative order for up to 200 air taxis. In addition, Archer, Joby, Lilium, EHang, and others have signed agreements with firms in the Middle East, a nearby market with similar demand potential.
Air Taxi Firms Joby, Archer, Beta Announce Plans to Electrify Airports
The manufacturers will install electric aircraft chargers from coast to coast as they quarrel over whose charging system—Joby’s or Beta’s—should be the industry standard.
By Jack Daleo
Clash of the Chargers
While Joby, Archer, and Beta are all working with Atlantic, they will be delivering slightly different systems. In fact, Joby has publicly clashed with Archer and Beta over the firms’ conflicting charging frameworks, both of which attempt to set the industry standard.
Interestingly, Archer will actually be installing Beta’s charging systems at Atlantic sites. The firms partnered in November to expand the latter’s infrastructure under the combined charging system (CCS) standard, which was originally developed for electric ground vehicles to make chargers accessible to any automobile. As part of the deal, Archer purchased several Beta systems and expanded the latter’s network to the West Coast.
The CCS has been proposed as a standard for electric aircraft and was recently endorsed by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), which enjoys significant sway in the aviation industry. Beta and Archer contributed to the endorsement, which also garnered support from Boeing’s Wisk Aero, Lilium, Volocopter, Overair, and other air taxi manufacturers.
Beta describes its solution as an “interoperable rapid charging system” for all kinds of electric aircraft and ground vehicles alike. According to Beta and Archer, “several top OEMs” in the aviation industry are designing for the CCS-aligned systems.
As of Monday, Beta chargers are online at 17 locations nationwide, with a further 55 sites in the permitting or construction process. The network includes the first electric aircraft charger at a U.S. Department of Defense site, which was delivered in September to Eglin Air Force Base’s Duke Field (KEGI) in Florida. Earlier in the year, Beta flew its electric conventional take off and landing (eCTOL) aircraft to the base, testing chargers in its network along the way.
“Over the past several years, Beta has been focused on deploying a reliable, well-distributed network of fast chargers to enable the entire advanced air mobility industry, and we are aligned with the team at Atlantic on our mission,” said Nate Ward, head of charge network development at Beta.
Joby’s Alternative
One of the few large manufacturers to snub GAMA’s endorsement of the CCS was Joby, which has come up with its own standard—the global electric aviation charging system (GEACS).
Like CCS, GEACS—which was unveiled the same day Beta and Archer announced their partnership—calls for chargers to be widely accessible. Joby also agrees with its rivals that air taxi manufacturers, not industry outsiders, should be the ones to build the charging systems. But while the proposals have similar aims, there are a few key differences.
Unlike Beta’s system, Joby’s includes a coolant mechanism that keeps batteries at an optimal temperature during charging. Beta opted instead to separate the two systems. Joby’s charger also includes several DC channels, which can be used to juice up multiple isolated battery packs simultaneously. Conversely, Beta’s system requires only one channel—its and Archer’s air taxis concentrate the battery packs in a single location, while Joby’s spreads them across the airframe.
Joby also intends to use an Ethernet connection to download data—such as battery charge level and temperature—while the aircraft charges. That means operations won’t be bogged down by ground personnel. Beta and Archer have not mentioned such a system.
“Through more than 30,000 miles of all-electric vertical flight with full-scale prototype aircraft, our team has fine-tuned a ground support system that allows for the simultaneous recharging of multiple battery packs, external coolant exchange, and secure data offload after flight—making it suitable for all electric aircraft,” said JoeBen Bevirt, CEO of Joby.
According to the manufacturer, GEACS is already in place at its flight test center in Marina, California, and Edwards Air Force Base (KEDW) outside Los Angeles. In addition, at least one other FBO is interested in the system. Joby last week partnered with Clay Lacy Aviation to install chargers at its John Wayne Airport (KSNA) terminal in Santa Ana, California. Clay Lacy Aviation replaced Atlantic as a service provider at John Wayne in 2020.
It’s still unclear which standard—CCS or GEACS—will win out in electric aviation. But for the industry to be accessible, chances are only one will be adopted.
A parallel conflict is unfolding in the electric ground vehicle industry, which may or may not be a harbinger for electric aircraft. In that space, the CCS is steadily losing ground to the North American charging standard (NACS) developed by industry leader Tesla, as Ford, General Motors, Toyota, and other automakers switch over. The NACS is equivalent to GEACS—an alternative standard proposed by a firm unsatisfied with the industry’s recommendation. The comparison isn’t perfect, however, since Joby has yet to reach the scale of Tesla.
If it can, Joby has a real chance at setting the industry standard, despite its rivals’ support of the CCS. But as each manufacturer looks to increase industrywide reliance on its tech, Beta and Archer will likely fight fiercely to be the top dog.
The manufacturers will install electric aircraft chargers from coast to coast as they quarrel over whose charging system—Joby’s or Beta’s—should be the industry standard.
By Jack Daleo
January 17, 2024
A digital illustration depicts Atlantic Aviation’s Los Angeles FBO modified for eVTOL air taxi operations. [Courtesy: Archer Aviation]
A trio of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxi manufacturers signed separate deals to electrify airport infrastructure—all with the same partner.
On Wednesday, Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation joined Beta Technologies in collaborating with Atlantic Aviation, an FBO network and aviation services provider, to add electric charging stations to Atlantic locations across the U.S. The new infrastructure will open up the airfields to Joby’s S4, Archer’s Midnight, Beta’s Alia, and other electric air taxi designs.
Atlantic’s goal is to build technology-agnostic aviation infrastructure—in other words, it plans to work with a variety of firms to electrify its terminals. Joby said its agreement will initially focus on FBOs in New York and Los Angeles. Archer is also eyeing those two markets, in addition to San Francisco and Miami.
Beta, which announced its partnership last week, is targeting the East and Gulf coasts. The firm has already installed a system at New York’s Elmira Regional Airport (KELM) and agreed to add infrastructure to Birmingham International Airport (KBHM) in Alabama, Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport (KJAN) in Mississippi, and Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport (KBAF) in Massachusetts.
All three manufacturers have hinted that more sites are on the horizon. In addition, each will work with Atlantic to study how its air taxi design can operate safely alongside traditional aircraft.
Joby and Beta did not provide timelines for their initial projects, but Archer said its early systems will come online in 2025.
“These initial eVTOL vertiport locations will provide a launching pad for future expansion across Atlantic’s portfolio and ensure that our Midnight aircraft has safe, centrally located landing facilities for our future passengers,” said Nikhil Goel, chief commercial officer of Archer.
In addition, a memorandum of understanding between Archer and Atlantic calls for the two to enter a strategic partnership down the line, based on Archer’s commitments for landing and infrastructure investments.
Beta, meanwhile, expects its collaboration to produce a “template” for FBO-OEM relationships. The blueprint would speed the execution of host site agreements (HSAs), which permit manufacturers such as Beta to install electric infrastructure at sites they do not own. Doing so would help the industry prepare for the first passenger-carrying air taxi flights in the U.S., which are expected to begin in 2025.
A digital illustration depicts Atlantic Aviation’s Los Angeles FBO modified for eVTOL air taxi operations. [Courtesy: Archer Aviation]
A trio of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxi manufacturers signed separate deals to electrify airport infrastructure—all with the same partner.
On Wednesday, Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation joined Beta Technologies in collaborating with Atlantic Aviation, an FBO network and aviation services provider, to add electric charging stations to Atlantic locations across the U.S. The new infrastructure will open up the airfields to Joby’s S4, Archer’s Midnight, Beta’s Alia, and other electric air taxi designs.
Atlantic’s goal is to build technology-agnostic aviation infrastructure—in other words, it plans to work with a variety of firms to electrify its terminals. Joby said its agreement will initially focus on FBOs in New York and Los Angeles. Archer is also eyeing those two markets, in addition to San Francisco and Miami.
Beta, which announced its partnership last week, is targeting the East and Gulf coasts. The firm has already installed a system at New York’s Elmira Regional Airport (KELM) and agreed to add infrastructure to Birmingham International Airport (KBHM) in Alabama, Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport (KJAN) in Mississippi, and Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport (KBAF) in Massachusetts.
All three manufacturers have hinted that more sites are on the horizon. In addition, each will work with Atlantic to study how its air taxi design can operate safely alongside traditional aircraft.
Joby and Beta did not provide timelines for their initial projects, but Archer said its early systems will come online in 2025.
“These initial eVTOL vertiport locations will provide a launching pad for future expansion across Atlantic’s portfolio and ensure that our Midnight aircraft has safe, centrally located landing facilities for our future passengers,” said Nikhil Goel, chief commercial officer of Archer.
In addition, a memorandum of understanding between Archer and Atlantic calls for the two to enter a strategic partnership down the line, based on Archer’s commitments for landing and infrastructure investments.
Beta, meanwhile, expects its collaboration to produce a “template” for FBO-OEM relationships. The blueprint would speed the execution of host site agreements (HSAs), which permit manufacturers such as Beta to install electric infrastructure at sites they do not own. Doing so would help the industry prepare for the first passenger-carrying air taxi flights in the U.S., which are expected to begin in 2025.
Clash of the Chargers
While Joby, Archer, and Beta are all working with Atlantic, they will be delivering slightly different systems. In fact, Joby has publicly clashed with Archer and Beta over the firms’ conflicting charging frameworks, both of which attempt to set the industry standard.
Interestingly, Archer will actually be installing Beta’s charging systems at Atlantic sites. The firms partnered in November to expand the latter’s infrastructure under the combined charging system (CCS) standard, which was originally developed for electric ground vehicles to make chargers accessible to any automobile. As part of the deal, Archer purchased several Beta systems and expanded the latter’s network to the West Coast.
The CCS has been proposed as a standard for electric aircraft and was recently endorsed by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), which enjoys significant sway in the aviation industry. Beta and Archer contributed to the endorsement, which also garnered support from Boeing’s Wisk Aero, Lilium, Volocopter, Overair, and other air taxi manufacturers.
Beta describes its solution as an “interoperable rapid charging system” for all kinds of electric aircraft and ground vehicles alike. According to Beta and Archer, “several top OEMs” in the aviation industry are designing for the CCS-aligned systems.
As of Monday, Beta chargers are online at 17 locations nationwide, with a further 55 sites in the permitting or construction process. The network includes the first electric aircraft charger at a U.S. Department of Defense site, which was delivered in September to Eglin Air Force Base’s Duke Field (KEGI) in Florida. Earlier in the year, Beta flew its electric conventional take off and landing (eCTOL) aircraft to the base, testing chargers in its network along the way.
“Over the past several years, Beta has been focused on deploying a reliable, well-distributed network of fast chargers to enable the entire advanced air mobility industry, and we are aligned with the team at Atlantic on our mission,” said Nate Ward, head of charge network development at Beta.
Joby’s Alternative
One of the few large manufacturers to snub GAMA’s endorsement of the CCS was Joby, which has come up with its own standard—the global electric aviation charging system (GEACS).
Like CCS, GEACS—which was unveiled the same day Beta and Archer announced their partnership—calls for chargers to be widely accessible. Joby also agrees with its rivals that air taxi manufacturers, not industry outsiders, should be the ones to build the charging systems. But while the proposals have similar aims, there are a few key differences.
Unlike Beta’s system, Joby’s includes a coolant mechanism that keeps batteries at an optimal temperature during charging. Beta opted instead to separate the two systems. Joby’s charger also includes several DC channels, which can be used to juice up multiple isolated battery packs simultaneously. Conversely, Beta’s system requires only one channel—its and Archer’s air taxis concentrate the battery packs in a single location, while Joby’s spreads them across the airframe.
Joby also intends to use an Ethernet connection to download data—such as battery charge level and temperature—while the aircraft charges. That means operations won’t be bogged down by ground personnel. Beta and Archer have not mentioned such a system.
“Through more than 30,000 miles of all-electric vertical flight with full-scale prototype aircraft, our team has fine-tuned a ground support system that allows for the simultaneous recharging of multiple battery packs, external coolant exchange, and secure data offload after flight—making it suitable for all electric aircraft,” said JoeBen Bevirt, CEO of Joby.
According to the manufacturer, GEACS is already in place at its flight test center in Marina, California, and Edwards Air Force Base (KEDW) outside Los Angeles. In addition, at least one other FBO is interested in the system. Joby last week partnered with Clay Lacy Aviation to install chargers at its John Wayne Airport (KSNA) terminal in Santa Ana, California. Clay Lacy Aviation replaced Atlantic as a service provider at John Wayne in 2020.
It’s still unclear which standard—CCS or GEACS—will win out in electric aviation. But for the industry to be accessible, chances are only one will be adopted.
A parallel conflict is unfolding in the electric ground vehicle industry, which may or may not be a harbinger for electric aircraft. In that space, the CCS is steadily losing ground to the North American charging standard (NACS) developed by industry leader Tesla, as Ford, General Motors, Toyota, and other automakers switch over. The NACS is equivalent to GEACS—an alternative standard proposed by a firm unsatisfied with the industry’s recommendation. The comparison isn’t perfect, however, since Joby has yet to reach the scale of Tesla.
If it can, Joby has a real chance at setting the industry standard, despite its rivals’ support of the CCS. But as each manufacturer looks to increase industrywide reliance on its tech, Beta and Archer will likely fight fiercely to be the top dog.
Jack Daleo is a staff writer covering advanced air mobility, including everything from drones to unmanned aircraft systems to space travel—and a whole lot more. He spent close to two years reporting on drone delivery for FreightWaves, covering the biggest news and developments in the space and connecting with industry executives and experts. Jack is also a basketball aficionado, a frequent traveler and a lover of all things logistics.
In Depth with JoeBen Bevirt Illuminates the Joby Vision
In the quest to free vertical flight, the engineer makes good on a childhood dream.
January 16, 2024
JoeBen Bevirt spoke with FLYING at the Paris Air Show 2023. [Credit: Stephen Yeates]
In the folds of the Santa Cruz Mountains in California, a boy grew up dreaming of a different kind of flight—one that wouldn’t be constrained by the traditional means of lifting off and landing in challenging places, just like the remote enclave his parents called home in the 1970s and ’80s. Yes, helicopters would, in theory, take him where he wanted to go, but the noise produced by a typical combustion engine and rotor blades shattered the quiet he wished to preserve.
This dream provoked a vision for JoeBen Bevirt—one he has singularly pursued ever since.
After finding his natural engineering mind on a track at the University of California-Davis, and a graduate degree in mechanical engineering at Stanford University, Bevirt founded a series of successful companies in the tech sector. He started Velocity11 in 1999, developing robotic systems for laboratory work. The first iterations of “Joby”—Joby Inc., which produced the Gorillapod, and Joby Energy, focused on aerial wind turbines—came into being prior to the main event, Joby Aviation, which he founded in 2009.
Joby Aviation launched to coalesce Bevirt’s vision of an all-electric vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft and the transportation system to support and deploy it. Now, as the company surpasses 1,400 employees and celebrates the reveal of its conforming production prototype, the vision sits on the cusp of being fully realized. FLYING talked with Bevirt to illuminate the source of that vision and where it will take Joby next.
Bevirt showed an early predisposition to engineering. [Courtesy of JoeBen Bevirt]
FLYING Magazine (FM): So what was it that set off that spark for you when you were that young boy?
JoeBen Bevirt: (JB): I was born and raised far from civilization in a place called Last Chance. Our house was at the edge of a beautiful meadow with fruit trees and a garden nestled among the redwoods overlooking the Pacific Ocean. In the morning I would get a ride to school with one of my parents on their way to work. In the af- ternoon I would either go to a friend’s house and wait or I would take the city bus to the transit station and then take another bus up the coast. I would get off at the bot- tom of Swanton Road and then walk a mile up to Last Chance and then the 4 miles back from Last Chance to my home. It gave me a lot of time to dream about bet- ter ways [of] getting from [point] A to B. I loved where I lived, and I loved my school, but I wanted to be able to expediently get between them.
I imagined an aircraft could take off and land in the meadow. But it was also pretty quiet, and peaceful, and the idea of a really loud aircraft didn’t appeal to me. For me, it was a question of “how do I build an aircraft that is suitable for this serene, beautiful place but that I can take off and land vertically?”
FM: How did you first try to solve that problem?
JB: I inherited my uncle’s collection of model airplane parts including a whole bunch of little model engines—and they were horrifically loud. So, I thought, this is not the answer. They were really fun but really loud. [laughs] Then I started playing with remote-control car motors, and at this point in time, they were these little brushed motors and NiCad batteries, and I mounted props to them, and built many crazy contraptions. This was one of my first experiences with iterative engineering even before I knew what engineering was.
FM: You began working with electric motors, but it took time for them to reach a usable capacity, right?
JB: In 1993 when I was in college, my proficiency with engineering had improved, and I had the opportunity to work for a company doing pioneering work on vertical take off and landing aircraft. Unfortunately, they were horrifically loud. I became convinced that electric propulsion was the critical unlock to make VTOL aircraft part of daily life. NiCad batteries had gotten to 40 or 50 watt hours per kilogram, and there were rumors that the lithium-ion battery was going to move from the lab into production and that Sony was getting close with a cell specific energy of 70 watt hours per kilogram. But even 70 watt hours per kilogram didn’t feel sufficient for a useful endurance.
There were researchers at the DOE [Department of Energy] projecting that lithium ion had the potential to get us to 200 watt hours a kilogram in 20 years. Batteries had been improving by 6 percent a year since the late 1800s, and I figured that it was going to stay on that ramp. But I was 19 years old, and I was thinking, 6 percent a year—it’s going to take 20 years to get to a useful specific energy— that felt like an eternity, and so I put my dream of electric
flight on hold. At Stanford in 1998, I met a guy named JB Straubel who was fixated on building an electric car, and over the years I had the opportunity to experience a few exhilarating test drives in his prototypes. This gave me a front-row seat to the progress being made on batteries. By 2008 I had sourced batteries with a specific energy of 170 watt hours per kilogram and a specific power of more than 1 kilowatt per kilogram, which I believed was sufficient to build a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft with 100 miles of range. After a bit of design work and analysis, I founded Joby to bring electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft to life. Today we are certifying our aircraft with cells that are more than 280 watt hours per kilogram. And we’ve moved from the idea of making something for an enthusiast to something that could be a new mode of transportation.
FM: So, with that early introduction into electrical and mechanical engineering, it was pretty clear that was your passion. Were there any other directions you thought about going?
JB: No. I loved building things and creating things. But there were no engineers in my family. I remember in seventh grade, my math teacher said, “You’re gonna be an engineer,” and I said, “I don’t wanna drive trains!” and he’s like “No, no, no, no, no…my son’s studying to be an engineer, and I think that you’re going to be an engineer.” And he explained what an engineer was, and I’m like, “That’s it!” So I had my calling since I was really little, but I first had somebody put a name to it in seventh grade. From that point, I was on cruise control, so focused. In high school, I was also really into cycling, so I designed and built one of the world’s first full-suspension mountain bikes, and it was really fun to watch the cycling industry emerge. It was funny back then because all my friends would make fun of me for putting a suspension on a bike, and I said, “But it’s so much better!” And they thought I was weak, like your legs are supposed to be the shock ab- sorbers. But it’s fun to have watched that industry evolve.
Early engineering projects included work on high-end cycling equipment. [Courtesy of JoeBen Bevirt]
FM: So, in graduate school, were there mentors or fellow students that you worked with on the vision?
JB: Right at the beginning of my sophomore year, I went to the dean of the engineering school and said, “You’re teaching computer-aided design wrong. And you’re do- ing a massive disservice to the students, and we have to fix it.” And he said, “‘OK, that’s amusing.” And so he picks up the phone, “Paul, I’ve got somebody for you. Can I send him over?” Click. I ride over to the research park, and I knock on the door, and it says Moller International. There was something that went off in my head, but it didn’t really click. And I walked inside, and there was a picture of this vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, and I’m like— wow! And so it was serendipity.
So I went and interned for Paul [Moller] for a quarter, and then I convinced him that I should create an internship program. I had four interns for the next quarter. And then I convinced him that we should expand and have like 12 interns, and this was with a team of like 40 engineers at the time—awesome engineers—and all of a sudden there were 12 interns and the engineers were looking at themselves wondering, “What just happened?” It was my first experience of leading a larger team. Moller had built a whole bunch of breakthrough vertical takeoff and landing aircraft through the ’70s and ’80s. It was cool for me to be able to see the integration of composites and mechanical engineering and electrical engineering and software engineering—and what was needed to…make vertical takeoff and landing aircraft possible.
FM: You’ve built a company centered around a vertically integrated enterprise. You’re not just making the part— you’re figuring out is this the right composition of this base material. Why is having that depth of control over the process critical to the transformative thing that you’re trying to do?
JB: I think to engineer and build the most performant things—whether that’s at the aircraft level or whether that’s at the system level or the component level, or the individual part—you really need to understand all the nuance[s]. And whether that’s in the material properties or that’s in the way that the pieces integrate together, [or] whether [it’s] the way that the systems communicate with one another. I think that one of the pieces that I’m so excited about and passionate about is the technology that runs both the electronics and the software that run each of the components and the controls, whether it’s the flight computers or the actuators or the air data systems or the navigation systems. All of these different systems across the aircraft share a common hardware and software stack. It gives us the ability to innovate and to move aviation to the next level from a technological standpoint. The rate at which we’re able to collect data from each of those devices, the richness of the data, the temperatures and the currents and the voltages and the acceleration levels…we know so much about everything that’s going on across the aircraft…which is valuable from a product maintenance standpoint…and [provides] the ability to really understand the aircraft at a substantially more sophisticated level than we’ve ever been able to do before.
It also enables us to build a fly-by-wire control system [that] we hope will substantially improve safety by reducing pilot workload and allowing the pilot to focus on things that pilots are really good at doing. Our aircraft—you could just design it in a way that had more pilot workload than traditional aircraft. But we’ve decided to make it substantially easier and safer to fly.
Joby Aviation had been flying a full-scale prototype (above) for a couple of years before unveiling its conforming production prototype in June. [Credit: Stephen Yeates]
FM: You’ve built a transparent culture. Is this something that you’ve driven into your organization purposefully?
JB: I think because we grew the organization organically, with that as the ethos from the beginning, I think that helps you see it [and know it’s something] that you always have to continue to nurture and focus on and foster, but it is something we cherish.
FM: Were there any challenges with getting the FAA to ac- cept and get through the first set of papers, putting it all into motion?
JB: We started working informally with the FAA back in 2015. We had conversations well back before that, but by that point in time, there was momentum building. We started the Electric Propulsion & Innovation Committee [EPIC] at GAMA. We then began a formal certification in 2018. We’d been flying our full-scale prototype for a [little more than a] year at that point, and the level of engagement and forward lean from the FAA was increasing steadily. We’ve continued to foster a really constructive relationship with everyone that we work with at the FAA. The degree with which the FAA has leaned into this industry is really fantastic. I mean, they see it as you see it, that it has the potential to transform flight both in the degree of relevancy that it has to large por- tions of the population on a daily basis but also to make it safer. And… more accessible, sustainable. So there’s a lot of value in each of these different dimensions.
FM: Can you pick a specific challenge so far that you’ve solved that has curved things up?
JB: I think that the one right now that I’m super excited about is getting this first aircraft off our pilot manufacturing line. And that it is just so exciting to have used all of our quality processes and have built all the procedures to not just build the experimental aircraft but to have the pieces in place to begin building conforming aircraft. So it’s a monumental achievement from the team. It took a spectacular amount of work, and I’m just so proud.
JoeBen Bevirt spoke with FLYING at the Paris Air Show 2023. [Credit: Stephen Yeates]
In the folds of the Santa Cruz Mountains in California, a boy grew up dreaming of a different kind of flight—one that wouldn’t be constrained by the traditional means of lifting off and landing in challenging places, just like the remote enclave his parents called home in the 1970s and ’80s. Yes, helicopters would, in theory, take him where he wanted to go, but the noise produced by a typical combustion engine and rotor blades shattered the quiet he wished to preserve.
This dream provoked a vision for JoeBen Bevirt—one he has singularly pursued ever since.
After finding his natural engineering mind on a track at the University of California-Davis, and a graduate degree in mechanical engineering at Stanford University, Bevirt founded a series of successful companies in the tech sector. He started Velocity11 in 1999, developing robotic systems for laboratory work. The first iterations of “Joby”—Joby Inc., which produced the Gorillapod, and Joby Energy, focused on aerial wind turbines—came into being prior to the main event, Joby Aviation, which he founded in 2009.
Joby Aviation launched to coalesce Bevirt’s vision of an all-electric vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft and the transportation system to support and deploy it. Now, as the company surpasses 1,400 employees and celebrates the reveal of its conforming production prototype, the vision sits on the cusp of being fully realized. FLYING talked with Bevirt to illuminate the source of that vision and where it will take Joby next.
Bevirt showed an early predisposition to engineering. [Courtesy of JoeBen Bevirt]FLYING Magazine (FM): So what was it that set off that spark for you when you were that young boy?
JoeBen Bevirt: (JB): I was born and raised far from civilization in a place called Last Chance. Our house was at the edge of a beautiful meadow with fruit trees and a garden nestled among the redwoods overlooking the Pacific Ocean. In the morning I would get a ride to school with one of my parents on their way to work. In the af- ternoon I would either go to a friend’s house and wait or I would take the city bus to the transit station and then take another bus up the coast. I would get off at the bot- tom of Swanton Road and then walk a mile up to Last Chance and then the 4 miles back from Last Chance to my home. It gave me a lot of time to dream about bet- ter ways [of] getting from [point] A to B. I loved where I lived, and I loved my school, but I wanted to be able to expediently get between them.
I imagined an aircraft could take off and land in the meadow. But it was also pretty quiet, and peaceful, and the idea of a really loud aircraft didn’t appeal to me. For me, it was a question of “how do I build an aircraft that is suitable for this serene, beautiful place but that I can take off and land vertically?”
FM: How did you first try to solve that problem?
JB: I inherited my uncle’s collection of model airplane parts including a whole bunch of little model engines—and they were horrifically loud. So, I thought, this is not the answer. They were really fun but really loud. [laughs] Then I started playing with remote-control car motors, and at this point in time, they were these little brushed motors and NiCad batteries, and I mounted props to them, and built many crazy contraptions. This was one of my first experiences with iterative engineering even before I knew what engineering was.
FM: You began working with electric motors, but it took time for them to reach a usable capacity, right?
JB: In 1993 when I was in college, my proficiency with engineering had improved, and I had the opportunity to work for a company doing pioneering work on vertical take off and landing aircraft. Unfortunately, they were horrifically loud. I became convinced that electric propulsion was the critical unlock to make VTOL aircraft part of daily life. NiCad batteries had gotten to 40 or 50 watt hours per kilogram, and there were rumors that the lithium-ion battery was going to move from the lab into production and that Sony was getting close with a cell specific energy of 70 watt hours per kilogram. But even 70 watt hours per kilogram didn’t feel sufficient for a useful endurance.
There were researchers at the DOE [Department of Energy] projecting that lithium ion had the potential to get us to 200 watt hours a kilogram in 20 years. Batteries had been improving by 6 percent a year since the late 1800s, and I figured that it was going to stay on that ramp. But I was 19 years old, and I was thinking, 6 percent a year—it’s going to take 20 years to get to a useful specific energy— that felt like an eternity, and so I put my dream of electric
flight on hold. At Stanford in 1998, I met a guy named JB Straubel who was fixated on building an electric car, and over the years I had the opportunity to experience a few exhilarating test drives in his prototypes. This gave me a front-row seat to the progress being made on batteries. By 2008 I had sourced batteries with a specific energy of 170 watt hours per kilogram and a specific power of more than 1 kilowatt per kilogram, which I believed was sufficient to build a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft with 100 miles of range. After a bit of design work and analysis, I founded Joby to bring electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft to life. Today we are certifying our aircraft with cells that are more than 280 watt hours per kilogram. And we’ve moved from the idea of making something for an enthusiast to something that could be a new mode of transportation.
FM: So, with that early introduction into electrical and mechanical engineering, it was pretty clear that was your passion. Were there any other directions you thought about going?
JB: No. I loved building things and creating things. But there were no engineers in my family. I remember in seventh grade, my math teacher said, “You’re gonna be an engineer,” and I said, “I don’t wanna drive trains!” and he’s like “No, no, no, no, no…my son’s studying to be an engineer, and I think that you’re going to be an engineer.” And he explained what an engineer was, and I’m like, “That’s it!” So I had my calling since I was really little, but I first had somebody put a name to it in seventh grade. From that point, I was on cruise control, so focused. In high school, I was also really into cycling, so I designed and built one of the world’s first full-suspension mountain bikes, and it was really fun to watch the cycling industry emerge. It was funny back then because all my friends would make fun of me for putting a suspension on a bike, and I said, “But it’s so much better!” And they thought I was weak, like your legs are supposed to be the shock ab- sorbers. But it’s fun to have watched that industry evolve.
Early engineering projects included work on high-end cycling equipment. [Courtesy of JoeBen Bevirt]FM: So, in graduate school, were there mentors or fellow students that you worked with on the vision?
JB: Right at the beginning of my sophomore year, I went to the dean of the engineering school and said, “You’re teaching computer-aided design wrong. And you’re do- ing a massive disservice to the students, and we have to fix it.” And he said, “‘OK, that’s amusing.” And so he picks up the phone, “Paul, I’ve got somebody for you. Can I send him over?” Click. I ride over to the research park, and I knock on the door, and it says Moller International. There was something that went off in my head, but it didn’t really click. And I walked inside, and there was a picture of this vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, and I’m like— wow! And so it was serendipity.
So I went and interned for Paul [Moller] for a quarter, and then I convinced him that I should create an internship program. I had four interns for the next quarter. And then I convinced him that we should expand and have like 12 interns, and this was with a team of like 40 engineers at the time—awesome engineers—and all of a sudden there were 12 interns and the engineers were looking at themselves wondering, “What just happened?” It was my first experience of leading a larger team. Moller had built a whole bunch of breakthrough vertical takeoff and landing aircraft through the ’70s and ’80s. It was cool for me to be able to see the integration of composites and mechanical engineering and electrical engineering and software engineering—and what was needed to…make vertical takeoff and landing aircraft possible.
FM: You’ve built a company centered around a vertically integrated enterprise. You’re not just making the part— you’re figuring out is this the right composition of this base material. Why is having that depth of control over the process critical to the transformative thing that you’re trying to do?
JB: I think to engineer and build the most performant things—whether that’s at the aircraft level or whether that’s at the system level or the component level, or the individual part—you really need to understand all the nuance[s]. And whether that’s in the material properties or that’s in the way that the pieces integrate together, [or] whether [it’s] the way that the systems communicate with one another. I think that one of the pieces that I’m so excited about and passionate about is the technology that runs both the electronics and the software that run each of the components and the controls, whether it’s the flight computers or the actuators or the air data systems or the navigation systems. All of these different systems across the aircraft share a common hardware and software stack. It gives us the ability to innovate and to move aviation to the next level from a technological standpoint. The rate at which we’re able to collect data from each of those devices, the richness of the data, the temperatures and the currents and the voltages and the acceleration levels…we know so much about everything that’s going on across the aircraft…which is valuable from a product maintenance standpoint…and [provides] the ability to really understand the aircraft at a substantially more sophisticated level than we’ve ever been able to do before.
It also enables us to build a fly-by-wire control system [that] we hope will substantially improve safety by reducing pilot workload and allowing the pilot to focus on things that pilots are really good at doing. Our aircraft—you could just design it in a way that had more pilot workload than traditional aircraft. But we’ve decided to make it substantially easier and safer to fly.
Joby Aviation had been flying a full-scale prototype (above) for a couple of years before unveiling its conforming production prototype in June. [Credit: Stephen Yeates]FM: You’ve built a transparent culture. Is this something that you’ve driven into your organization purposefully?
JB: I think because we grew the organization organically, with that as the ethos from the beginning, I think that helps you see it [and know it’s something] that you always have to continue to nurture and focus on and foster, but it is something we cherish.
FM: Were there any challenges with getting the FAA to ac- cept and get through the first set of papers, putting it all into motion?
JB: We started working informally with the FAA back in 2015. We had conversations well back before that, but by that point in time, there was momentum building. We started the Electric Propulsion & Innovation Committee [EPIC] at GAMA. We then began a formal certification in 2018. We’d been flying our full-scale prototype for a [little more than a] year at that point, and the level of engagement and forward lean from the FAA was increasing steadily. We’ve continued to foster a really constructive relationship with everyone that we work with at the FAA. The degree with which the FAA has leaned into this industry is really fantastic. I mean, they see it as you see it, that it has the potential to transform flight both in the degree of relevancy that it has to large por- tions of the population on a daily basis but also to make it safer. And… more accessible, sustainable. So there’s a lot of value in each of these different dimensions.
FM: Can you pick a specific challenge so far that you’ve solved that has curved things up?
JB: I think that the one right now that I’m super excited about is getting this first aircraft off our pilot manufacturing line. And that it is just so exciting to have used all of our quality processes and have built all the procedures to not just build the experimental aircraft but to have the pieces in place to begin building conforming aircraft. So it’s a monumental achievement from the team. It took a spectacular amount of work, and I’m just so proud.
Bevirt grew up in the Santa Cruz Mountains in California, which inspired his desire for short-distance, low-impact vertical transport. [Courtesy of JoeBen Bevirt]
Quick 6
Is there anyone living or dead that you would most like to fly with?
Kelly Johnson
If you could fly any aircraft that you haven’t flown yet, what would that be?
The F-22
What is your favorite airport that you’ve flown into?
Orcas Island Airport (KORS) in Washington
What do you believe has been the biggest innovation breakthrough or event in aviation?
Frank Whittle’s invention of the turbine
What is one important life lesson from being a pilot and inventor?
Dare to look over the horizon.
When not working towards the first TCed eVTOL aircraft, what would you rather be doing?
Catching up on the latest from our advanced research team
This profile first appeared in the August 2023/Issue 940 of FLYING’s print edition.
Quick 6
Is there anyone living or dead that you would most like to fly with?
Kelly Johnson
If you could fly any aircraft that you haven’t flown yet, what would that be?
The F-22
What is your favorite airport that you’ve flown into?
Orcas Island Airport (KORS) in Washington
What do you believe has been the biggest innovation breakthrough or event in aviation?
Frank Whittle’s invention of the turbine
What is one important life lesson from being a pilot and inventor?
Dare to look over the horizon.
When not working towards the first TCed eVTOL aircraft, what would you rather be doing?
Catching up on the latest from our advanced research team
This profile first appeared in the August 2023/Issue 940 of FLYING’s print edition.
Julie Boatman
Based in Maryland, Julie is an editor, aviation educator, and author. She holds an airline transport pilot certificate with Douglas DC-3 and CE510 (Citation Mustang) type ratings. She's a CFI/CFII since 1993, specializing in advanced aircraft and flight instructor development. Follow Julie on Twitter @julieinthesky.
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