Joby partners with L3Harris for defense VTOL aircraft development

Joby Aviation Inc. (NYSE: JOBY) and L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) announced a collaboration to develop gas turbine hybrid vertical take-off and landing aircraft for defense applications.

The aircraft is designed for low-altitude missions and can operate with or without a pilot, enabling both crewed and fully autonomous operations. Flight testing is expected to begin in fall 2025, with operational demonstrations during government exercises planned for 2026.

The partnership combines Joby's commercial aircraft development program and manufacturing capabilities with L3Harris' expertise in platform missionization, including sensors, effectors, communication and collaborative autonomy systems.

"The next-generation of vertical lift technology enables long-range, crewed-uncrewed teaming for a range of missions," said Jon Rambeau, President of Integrated Mission Systems at L3Harris. "We share a vision with Joby to deliver urgently-required innovation by missionizing VTOL aircraft for defense needs."

Joby founder and CEO JoeBen Bevirt stated: "We have worked closely with the Department of Defense over the past decade to give them a front row seat to the development of our dual-purpose technologies, and we're now ready to demonstrate and deploy it."

Joby is developing a gas turbine hybrid powertrain for its S4 aircraft platform and has demonstrated aircraft-level autonomy following its acquisition of Xwing's autonomy division in June 2024. The company previously demonstrated a 561-mile hydrogen-electric hybrid flight in June 2024 under government contract.

The collaboration aims to create a new aircraft class for various low-altitude support use cases in defense applications, according to the press release.

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