Manufacturer Joby Aviation, which recruited several veterans of Uber to help develop its eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) air taxi service, will work with the rideshare platform’s co-founder to build a new network of takeoff and landing sites.
Joby on Tuesday announced a strategic partnership with Atoms, led by Uber co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick, to acquire and develop vertiport sites across the U.S. The vertiports would give the company’s air taxi places to take off, land, charge, and ingress and egress once it is certified for commercial service.
They could see use even before that happens. Joby said the partners will develop their first sites in Florida, New York, and Texas—three states where it plans to conduct activities under the FAA’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP). The eIPP, which is already underway, is expected to comprise operations of precertified aircraft spanning three years and 26 states.
Joby and Atoms will also look to develop sites in California, home to the former’s headquarters, pilot production line, and flight test facilities.
Joby competitors Archer Aviation and Beta Technologies recently joined forces in a bid to establish 250 air taxi operating sites by 2030. Their early efforts will focus on the same four states as Joby’s.
“Thoughtful urban planning can take a decade or more, and making electric flight part of everyday life will require a new generation of transportation hubs connecting aircraft, ground transportation, and communities,” said JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO of Joby, in the company’s news release.
Joby’s announcement describes the vertiports as “next-generation” and “multimodal” transportation hubs, “where electric aircraft, autonomous ground vehicles, and ridesharing services will converge.” It said they will handle passenger connections, aircraft servicing, and ground transportation to bring passengers to their final destination.
The company’s futuristic vision for air travel also includes technologies such as biometrics and computer vision, which it plans to install in artificial intelligence-powered vertiports in partnership with parking garage operator Metropolis.
“Smart cities require innovative real estate and infrastructure development,” said Kalanick in a statement. “As new transport modes and smart city services become available, designing and deploying a new asset class to support them is critical.”
Joby described Atoms as a provider of “smart city infrastructure.” The company’s website outlines a vision to build “‘atoms-based’ computers where CPU is manufacturing, storage is real estate, and network is transportation” as well as “gainfully employed robots” specialized for specific jobs. In July, the company raised $1.7 billion in a funding round led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Uber.
Uber has invested in and partnered with Joby to offer an on-demand air taxi service called Uber Air. Several Uber veterans have joined Joby, most notably Eric Allison, its chief product officer who formerly led the company’s defunct aerial ridesharing unit, Uber Elevate.
Air Taxi Infrastructure
eVTOL aircraft will sometimes use existing sites, such as the Downtown Skyport and other Manhattan heliports at which Joby’s aircraft stopped during demonstration flights in April. At the same time, air taxi developers are looking to create new, dedicated sites for their aircraft, and some airports are already working to accommodate them.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversaw Joby’s April demonstrations, said it is actively seeking partners to design, build and operate a vertiport at LaGuardia Airport (KLGA) for eVTOL operations. More recently, the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority approved plans for a vertiport at Orlando International Airport (KMCO), and officials hope it will be ready for demonstrations later this year.
Other vertiport projects are being evaluated or underway across the country. Many are in or near urban areas, which would take advantage of the eVTOL’s quietness and vertical capabilities.
Joby has made establishing infrastructure for its air taxi a priority ahead of type certification. In addition to partnerships with Atoms and Metropolis, it is working with several fixed base operators (FBOs) to electrify their terminals. The company last year acquired several New York City terminals with its purchase of Blade Air Mobility’s passenger division.
Joby’s air taxi has six five-bladed tilt propellers that provide vertical lift during takeoff and hover and swivel forward to augment the wing during cruise, with twisted blades designed to reduce the “whop, whop, whop” of a helicopter to the volume of leaves rustling in the wind.
Per the FAA’s latest vertiport design guidance, downwash and outwash at the outer boundary of a vertiport’s operational area cannot exceed 34.5 mph. Clem Newton-Brown, founder and CEO of vertiport developer Skyportz, estimated that an aircraft the size of Joby’s would require a vertiport final approach and takeoff area (FATO) measuring 22.5 by 22.5 meters, surrounded by a large safety zone, to meet that threshold.
