Dive Brief:
- Joby Aviation began demonstration air taxi flights in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, area Sept. 10 as part of the Federal Aviation Administration’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program.
- Its electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft will fly potential routes, including direct flights into Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and major urban hubs, for one week.
- Archer Aviation’s infrastructure consortium announced plans in a Sept. 10 press release to develop a charging network for electric air taxis covering North Texas, as well as Houston, Austin, San Antonio and rural Texas communities.
Dive Insight:
Test flights and the build-out of vertiports and charging stations are underway as the major air taxi developers race toward a goal of beginning limited commercial flights by the end of this year.
Archer began a series of demonstration flights on Sept. 4, which will take its aircraft from California to Texas and Florida. It also plans to establish 250 air taxi charging sites across the U.S.’s largest airports and metro areas over the next 10 years in partnership with Beta Technologies and Macquarie Capital.
Joby flew demonstration flights of its aircraft in New York City in April, and announced plans last month to acquire and develop vertiports in Florida, New York and Texas in partnership with Atoms, a smart city infrastructure company. Atoms will develop vertiports as next-generation transportation hubs, featuring passenger connections, aircraft servicing and last-mile ground transportation, according to a news release.
Joby’s Texas flight schedule includes Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport, a cargo, corporate and government facility; roundtrip flights from Arlington and Toyota Motor North America’s corporate campus in Plano. Toyota has invested nearly $900 million in Joby Aviation as of 2024 and will supply powertrain and other components for Joby’s aircraft.
Its Texas flights aim to provide real-world operational data the FAA needs to build safety rules for commercial service at scale, Joby said in a press release. “This is just the beginning of what Texas and Joby can build together," Joby founder and CEO JoeBen Bevirt said in a statement.
