On Tuesday, electric air taxi developer Joby Aviation announced that it successfully completed its first piloted transition flights—demonstrating its aircraft’s full shift from vertical takeoff to forward cruise flight and back again.
So?
From Connecticut History.org:
‘On September 14, 1939, the VS-300, the world’s first practical helicopter, took flight at Stratford Designed by Igor Sikorsky and built by the Vought-Sikorsky Aircraft Division of the United Aircraft Corporation, the helicopter was the first to incorporate a single main rotor and tail rotor design.’
Joby has caught up to what was originally done in 1939.
Can this thing autorotate or glide in any meaningful way?
I just asked AI if it has a parachute. Here’s what it found:
Joby Aviation’s aircraft does not require a parachute. The company’s design includes multiple redundant systems that can tolerate the failure of any moving part and still land safely, as long as it has at least six rotors. This approach is considered safer and more reliable than relying on a parachute, which is not inherently designed into the aircraft’s fundamental safety level.
I guess that means it’s too safe for a parachute or you just got to accept your losses just like self driving cars. They work great until they don’t.
Just another weak way of attempting to keep electric air travel upfront until it finally passes from being in a coma to it’s final resting place.
The first manned transition flight was last week, and they are on schedule to deliver an aircraft by mid-2025?
“The company’s design includes multiple redundant systems that can tolerate the failure of any moving part and still land safely, as long as it has at least six rotors.”
Looking at the photo at the beginning of the article… Doesn’t it have only six rotors? The loss of one rotor means it will no longer be able to “still land safely”?
I guess that means […]
No, it means that AI is in its infancy. The ‘answer’ that you posted is nothing more than a bit of unattributed word salad.
The loss of one rotor means it will no longer be able to “still land safely”?
According to who? Joby (who should know) claims otherwise.
Like Arthur, I was also surprised by this story. Ignoring all the economics and politics around EVTOL aircraft, the Joby PR machine had me believing that they were a lot further in the development program. Confirming that expectation, the story says they will deliver an aircraft in “mid-2025”, and my calendar says that’s about 8 weeks away. It is therefore astonishing that this week they did their first ever piloted transition. Yikes! The next 7 weeks are going to be busy!
Arthur is correct. Got to hand it to the PR team, first piloted transition this week, delivery to Dubai next month? That’s some magical timing.
Well, that’s what (why?) I was asking.
After a little digging online, I found this quote from an article in Electric VTOL News regarding the Joby Aviation S-4 2.0 pre-production prototype: “ If one or two motors or propellers fail, the other working propellers can safely land the aircraft.”
Question answered.
The key words here are “piloted transition”. There have been plenty of transitions before this. Pilots (as in licensed type-certificated operators) were not part of the original design and had to be added later due to regulator requirements.
Probably with a rate of 32 ft per second per second.
It’s more than they are struggling with previously demonstrated capabilities. Every major aviation advancement in history, once perfected, bolted itself onto the existing infrastructure and immediately moved us forward. Yes, often creating some other problem. For example, jet engines created higher thrust forcing engineers to redesign wings and airframes. But no successful innovation ever appeared on the scene with such an extensive list of other obstacles as EVTOL air taxis have stuffed into their puny cargo holds. 135 Air Taxi safety regulations, market size, scalability, and competition are never moved by doing the same thing in a sexy way but less robustly, with less range, less payload, reduced market, etc etc-- cue the line… “But battery technology is advancing rapidly”…
The way I understand this, Joby always intended for the S4 to be piloted, at least for its initial FAA certification under Part 23 and Part 135. I think that the rules haven’t changed. The FAA has never allowed uncrewed commercial passenger flights, so it’s not like Joby was suddenly forced to “add pilots later.” As far as I can tell, they’ve been certifying a crewed aircraft from day one.
That said, autonomy has always been in the long-range pitch deck, and it wouldn’t surprise me if they initially hoped to shortcut the pilot requirement or at least delay it—but when it came to certifying under real FAA regs, they had to stick with a human at the controls.
The way I understand this . . .
. . . is the same way that I understand it.
Guess all the previous flights had bags of sand in the pilot seats.
And the “pilots” in this one had strict instructions not to touch anything…
the helicopter was the first to incorporate a single main rotor and tail rotor design.’
Joby has caught up to what was originally done in 1939.
Hmmm…the Joby has six main rotors, and no tail rotor. The VS-300 flies only as a helicopter, the Joby cruises as a conventional, fixed wing plane.
I don’t think that ‘catching up’ with conventional helos is their design goal.
[By the way, the Russians were the first with a single main rotor, the TsAGI-1EA, Good videos here - which also sported four anti torque rotors, two in the rear and two at the end of a forward boom. These four were powered by a second engine. It never made it past development stages.]