Dive Brief:
- Joby Aviation has expanded its manufacturing footprint in Ohio with the acquisition of a USPS facility at the Dayton International Airport, the aircraft maker announced last week.
- Joby will use the facility to produce titanium and aluminum aircraft parts to support its low-volume manufacturing facility in Marina, California. Joby has begun hiring for the site and is expected to start operations later this year in the former USPS facility.
- The facility allows Joby to jump-start operations before its $500 million air taxi manufacturing plant in Dayton comes online in 2025, a spokesperson told Manufacturing Dive in an email. Construction on the facility is slated to start this year.
Dive Insight:
Joby has been working on securing certification from the Federal Aviation Administration to accelerate the commercialization launch of its electric, vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) air taxis.
Last month, the company completed the third of five stages in the FAA certification process, which covers the aircraft’s structural, mechanical and electrical systems, as well as Joby’s intended certification approach to cybersecurity, human factors and noise, according to a Feb. 21 announcement.
Now, the company is working on completing the fourth stage of the certification process, which involves finishing tests and analyses of the aircraft and its components and systems. As a result, the Marina, California, facility has been cranking out parts for numerous aircraft that will support the for-credit testing, Didier Papadopoulos, Joby’s president of aircraft OEM, told analysts last month.
“This is a remarkable proof point as we prepare for operations in markets around the world. And this future begins on our manufacturing lines,” Papadopoulos said.
Joby chose Dayton to build its first air taxi manufacturing facility in September 2023. The new plant will build, test, and fly eVTOL air taxis for commercial passenger flights. Once operations begin in 2025, it’ll create up to 2,000 jobs and have the capacity to produce 500 aircraft annually.
In addition to expanding the Dayton site, Joby also plans to expand its Marina facility, which will more than double its footprint to support flight training, aircraft storage, and expanded manufacturing processes, CFO Matt Field said in last month's earnings call.
“This is expected to provide sufficient space to more than double our annual production capacity at this site, giving us the option to scale up to 25 planes per year to support early market operations while we bring up our Ohio facility,” Field said.
The Marina currently houses five aircraft in various stages of assembly, and the business expects to reach a production run-rate equivalent of one aircraft a month by the end of the year, the spokesperson said.
In November, the eVTOL air taxi maker received a $9.8 million state grant that assists companies in staying and growing in California. In return, Joby committed to investing $41.3 million and creating 690 full-time jobs by 2027.
