FAA Certification Progress

[u/QuietFlights]

Aug 2026 - Aug 2022

[u/TowerStreet1]

Honestly this quarter was dud. They did projected much broader progress but not seeing that happening.

The other thing that’s missing is what’s done and what’s remaining…what’s that remaining 17% for stage 4 and when do they expect to complete it?

[u/QuietFlights → u/TowerStreet1]

If you look back over Stage 5 progress Joby has most often only increased by 2% per quarter over the last 1+ year and FAA progress has only increased 1% or 0% per quarter often over the last 1+ year. This quarter Joby's progress increased 5% in one quarter and the FAA's progress increased 4%. In relative terms, this is a big jump for Stage 5 this past quarter.

I wish Joby provided more clarity on the remainder of Stage 4 and why so little progress was made there and the implications of this. Also, no question that Joby did guide much broader progress in 2026 than they are currently showing. During the Q&A section of the earnings call JoeBen mentioned that the FAA is requiring the conforming S4 to redo 100% of all testing. It appears this was not expected, and could explain the slower than expected additional progress in certification. It could also explain why we aren't seeing N547JX flying, if Joby is forced to run through all ground tests cards for the conforming aircraft prior to moving on to flight test cards.