A Joby aircraft completes a milestone flight in Marina, bringing the company a step closer to commercial service.

Joby Aviation, the Santa Cruz-based company that’s building electric air taxis at its facility in Marina, hit a milestone on Tuesday, April 22: one of its aircraft successfully completed a flight from vertical take-off to cruising speed, and back again, all with a pilot onboard.

Previous tests with a pilot had just involved hovering the aircraft, without transitioning to a horizontal flight. Such transitions have been done many times before, but only remotely, according to Joby. 

In the week since, Joby has completed multiple other flights with three different pilots.

The announcement was made on Tuesday, April 29, the same day a Joby representative gave an update on the company’s operations to the Monterey County Board of Supervisors.

Joby Chief Test Pilot James “Buddy” Denham was the first pilot to complete the transition.

“I’m honored to have played a role in this historic moment,” he said in a release. “Designing and flying an aircraft that can seamlessly transition between vertical and cruise flight has long been considered one of the most challenging technological feats in aerospace, but our team has developed and built an aircraft that makes it feel like an everyday task. The aircraft flew exactly as expected, with excellent handling qualities and low pilot workload.”

Cody Cleverly, the workforce development lead at Joby, told the supervisors on April 29 that its expansion project at the Marina Municipal Airport is moving along, a year to the date the company held a groundbreaking ceremony for the project. A new building has been constructed—expected to more than double its current 120,000-square-foot research and development facility—and work is underway inside to outfit it for manufacturing operations.

Cleverly estimates the facility will come online later in 2025.

Joby envisions offering an Uber-type service, where people will request an aircraft ride from their phone similar to the popular ridesharing app. The company is making progress with adding service in Dubai, possibly launching in early 2026, according to Cleverly.

For the United States, that service could go live in the next few years, but Joby is still undergoing a lengthy federal certification process, Cleverly said.

“We’re making tremendous progress in the certification process through the Federal Aviation Administration,” he said. “The timeline is in their hands. They’ve never certified an aircraft like ours before. It’s a clean sheet design.”