Joby Aviation announced that it has begun the final assembly on the “company-conforming” unit of its eVTOL aircraft.
This means that the airframe has been built as per its intended design and with a full quality management system in place. The next state of conformity will be “FAA-conforming” and that is when the aircraft can begin the FAA for-credit testing process.
Joby has previously separately completed the wing, tail, and fuselage of this aircraft and it is now putting them together at its pilot manufacturing plant in Marina, California. It is the first aircraft to be assembled at this location.
The eVTOL company then expects to begin testing the airframe before the second half of the year.
Joby also announced that a number of US states have shown interest in hosting the company’s future production facility, which is expected to complement and expand the limited production of the current pilot production plant in California.
An image released by Joby Aviation shows the fuselage heading into a large autoclave.