Joby Aviation completes autonomous 3,199-mile U.S. flight

Joby Aviation (NYSE: JOBY) announced that an aircraft equipped with its autonomy technology completed a 3,199-mile autonomous flight across the United States, concluding the eastbound leg of its month-long tour at Dare County Regional Airport in North Carolina's Outer Banks.

The aircraft, a converted Cessna Caravan, performed the transcontinental journey with zero control inputs from its onboard safety pilot. Operations including taxi, takeoff, route navigation, and landing were supervised remotely from Joby's Autonomy Headquarters in California and Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina, at distances of up to 2,323 miles.

The route included stops in Concord, CA; Phoenix, AZ; Fort Worth, TX; and Shaw Air Force Base, SC, before arriving at the Outer Banks. The aircraft also performed a low pass near the First Flight Monument at Kitty Hawk, near where the Wright brothers flew in 1903.

During the journey, the aircraft navigated high-density airspace at Phoenix Deer Valley Airport and rerouted around severe weather in real time. Flights also supported North Carolina's eLIFT-NC healthcare logistics initiative and Utah's uFLY multi-state coalition for FAA airspace integration evaluation.

Joby states its autonomy technology is built on more than 400 flights and 800 automated flight hours. The system was acquired from Xwing in 2024 and has been used in three U.S. military exercises, including Air Force readiness exercise Agile Flag and REFORPAC, where aircraft in Hawaii were operated remotely from Guam.

"Autonomy has an important role to play in the future of flight, allowing us to connect remote communities, deliver critical supplies, respond faster to disasters, support military operations, and keep pilots out of harm's way," said JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and CEO of Joby Aviation.

The aircraft is set to begin a westbound return journey with planned stops in Raleigh, Fredericksburg, Louisville, Wichita, Oklahoma City, Salt Lake City, and Portland.

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