Joby Aviation has reached a new milestone with the inaugural flight of its advanced turbine-electric vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) demonstrator aircraft. This innovative platform expands upon the company’s certified all-electric air taxi design by incorporating a hybrid-electric powertrain and its proprietary SuperPilot™ autonomous flight system, significantly boosting both operational range and payload capacity.
The flight test campaign, initiated on November 7 at Joby’s facility in Marina, California, comes just three months after the company unveiled the concept and announced a strategic partnership with L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX). This collaboration is focused on adapting the commercial aircraft for defense roles, with L3Harris providing expertise in mission systems integration for applications such as contested logistics, loyal wingman operations, and low-altitude support.
“Our vertically integrated approach allows us to accelerate the delivery of cutting-edge technology to the military at an unprecedented rate,” stated JoeBen Bevirt, Joby’s CEO and Founder. He emphasized the dual-use nature of the technology, noting that advancements driven by defense requirements will ultimately benefit commercial operations, including longer-range hybrid VTOL services and future autonomous flights in civil airspace.
The hybrid aircraft is a derivative of Joby’s core electric platform, which has already logged over 50,000 miles in testing and is in the final phase of the FAA type certification process. The integrated SuperPilot™ autonomy stack has been under development for more than five years and was recently demonstrated in a major Department of Defense exercise over the Pacific.
Jason Lambert, President of ISR at L3Harris, highlighted the strategic importance of the partnership: “Unmanned systems are critical for the future battlespace. Our work with Joby fast-tracks the deployment of mission-ready VTOL aircraft to meet urgent defense needs.”
The platform is designed for long-range, agile operations in environments without traditional runway infrastructure. Following further testing, operational demonstrations for government customers are planned for 2026.
