Joby Aviation gets additional $55 million from extension with U.S. Air Force
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KION-TV)- The company developing electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, Joby Aviation, Inc. announced an extension of its Agility Prime contract with the United States Air Force.
The company's total potential value has risen to $131 million with this latest $55 million contract extension which will include the construction of nine Joby aircraft, two of them will be sent to Edwards Air Force Base in California by early 2024. The aircraft will be the first electric air taxi to be stationed in a U.S. Force base.
As well as allowing us to explore the wide range of potential use cases across the U.S. government, our defense partners have also provided us with high-impact support as we prepare for commercial operations in 2025
This next step of getting Air Force pilots trained and operating Joby aircraft at an Air Force installation is an incredibly important milestone for the program, providing key insights to actual operations and use case validation for Advanced Air Mobility aircraft,” said Lt. Col. Tom Meagher, AFWERX Prime Lead.
Additionally, the Joby operations provide an outstanding opportunity for accelerated learning with the other Department of Defense services and government agencies, including NASA and the FAA.
JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and CEO of Joby.
As part of the agreement, Joby will deliver and operate nine of its five-seat, low-noise, zero-operating-emissions aircraft to the Air Force and other federal agencies to give them first-hand experiences of what Joby's aircraft can potentially do for them.
Days earlier, Joby's Aviation said they hosted four Air Force pilots in their Marina facility and became the first Air Force personnel to "fly an eVTOL as sole pilot-in-command through the full flight envelope, including transition from vertical to wingborne flight."
