HELP! I keep begging the fine folks at AvWeb to stop biting on these smoke and mirrors eVTOL press releases of non-accomplishments as news stories. I can see why AP News or Bloomberg, who couldn’t find magnetic north with a whiskey compass, keep thinking these are newsworthy, but please, lovable AvWeb folks, you know this is a joke right?
135 certificates are tied to the certified airplanes used. Joby’s aircraft does not exist at this point in time beyond an experimental proof-of-concept. So this “milestone” is in NO WAY related to their project to spend millions on developing and certifying an electric powered lift airframe and it’s powerplants, and power sources; and is in no way an approval of the still-to-be-developed processes for training, operations, and maintenance that these non-existent aircraft will need.
This is a 135 certificate for one or more (they don’t say how many - it’s important) SR22s. Not that getting a 135 cert isn’t a PITA, but anyone, and I mean anyone who knows an A&P, has a comm ticket, can thumb through a hazmat powerpoint, buy a CFI a beer, and can aim clean pee in a cup can get a 135 certificate if they are up for some groveling down at the FSDO. There are even websites that will sell you all the paperwork for a guaranteed complete 135 application for a few thousand bucks. There is almost no barrier to entry to getting a 135 cert in under two months for any person dragged off the street.
For a company that has spent countless millions, to say “The Part 135 Air Carrier Certificate is one of three FAA approvals required for Joby to operate its revolutionary electric” is extremely misleading. (Yes that’s true, just like it’s true that Saudi Arabia is in the top 70 countries in the winter Olympics). But THIS part 135 certificate that they pat themselves on the back for is not in any way a validation of anything they’ve been working on. The two have nothing to do with each other since most of the 14 CFR Part 135 is aircraft specific, and again, Joby’s marquee aircraft and its powerplant and power source and avionics have not cleared any real stage gates for certification.
This is even for a different aircraft class !!! since they eVTOL is now powered lift and this is a 135 cert for a small airplane. Apples and Oranges since all of the powered lift pilots in the world could probably fit in my backyard, and all the powered lift instructors in the world could fit in my SUV, so the training might be a little different…
By this logic I could get a single-pilot 135 cert in my C172 and then send out the press releases that this “accomplishment” is an important certification I will need to realize my brilliant vision of urban mobility hydrogen-filled dirigibles, and everyone will put me on the front page…