Joby notches first flight for hybrid VTOL aircraft
Joby plans to manufacture the hybrid electric vertical takeoff aircraft while L3Harris will provide its mission systems to pitch to military customers.
Joby plans to manufacture the hybrid electric vertical takeoff aircraft while L3Harris will provide its mission systems to pitch to military customers.
“The sort of lowest hanging fruit there are probably contested logistics, counter-UAS [unmanned aerial systems] and electronic warfare,” Joby Executive Chairman Paul Sciarra told Breaking Defense.
“There a lot of unmanned systems, that’s where we're seeing a lot of growth,” said Honeywell Aerospace’s Matt Milas. “So we’re definitely moving in the direction of unmanned solutions for defense applications.”
“The involvement of the military massively augments our velocity on the commercial side because the military's expectation of an airplane is fundamentally the same as the FAA’s. They want a safe, reliable, repeatedly produced aircraft,” said BETA founder and CEO Kyle Clark.
“There's a transformative vertical lift industry that's emerging and we need to be partners in it," said AFWERX Director Col. Elliot Leigh.