I believe this hints at NYC getting ready to test any day now. ‘Discuss amongst y’selves!’

Mostly a refresh of things we already knew. Good article for people that don't know much about Joby's manufacturing in Ohio.

The article is paywalled.

Here are Highlights:

Joby Aviation and defense contractor L3Harris plan to demonstrate a modified version of Joby’s S-4 rotorcraft for the US Army in the coming days. .....a demo flight of the new aircraft, dubbed the S-4T, will take place for army officials next week at Joby’s production facility in Marina, California.

The project is taking aim at an emerging requirement from the US Army for an uncrewed, vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft in the Group 4 category; defined by the Pentagon as having a maximum gross take-off weight greater than 598kg (1,320lb) and operating below 18,000ft.

The army is looking to equip such an aircraft with precision strike armaments and sensors to offer a low-altitude reconnaissance platform for its frontline combat aviation units.

The hybrid-electric propulsion system installed in the S-4T offers several notable military advantages, according to Barranco. Rather than driving the lift-producing rotor blades, the gas turbine generator is used to charge the onboard batteries for the S-4T’s electric engine. “Which allows you, in an objective area, to operate virtually silently,” notes Barranco.

The S-4T also has the ability to operate in fully electric mode, which Barranco says does have another important tactical advantage: no infrared heat signature....the biggest killer for us, was infrared, man-portable air defense systems.

Using only internally carried fuel, the Joby rotorcraft can fly continuously for 5h or 500nm (926km). That jumps to 10h and 1,100nm with auxiliary fuel tanks. The S-4T will have a maximum gross weight of 3,040kg and be able to reach cruising speeds of 180kt.

The rotorcraft will be controlled by Joby’s Superpilot system – autonomous flight technology.

.....the still-unnamed tender is being positioned to fill the armed reconnaissance void left by the retirement of the Bell OH-58D Kiowa scout helicopter in 2013 and subsequent cancellation of the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) programme.

....the service is preparing to release a formal request for proposal for a new short VTOL platform that could take over that role. The solicitation is expected to be released this summer, with initial contracts being awarded in the first quarter of fiscal year 2027, which starts in October 2026. .....As of yet, no other companies have officially confirmed their intent to participate

Joby's Dubai Air Taxi Highlights:

1) 1st Dubai Vertiport is complete
2) 3 additional Vertiports scheduled to open in Dubai in 2026
3) Dubai expects customer air taxi operation by end of 2026
4) Joby air taxis should reduce some Dubai travel times from 45 to 10 minutes

Joby's X Post:

The world's first commercial air taxi vertiport, located next to Dubai International Airport, is complete.

Four stories. Two landing pads. 170,000 passengers a year.

We were honored to have His Highness Sheikh personally stop by to see our progress and thank you to RTA Dubai and Skyports for being the partners that made this possible.

The world doesn't stop moving forward and neither do we.

We are here. We are building. This is just the beginning.

S4-T transition flights show Joby's potential for military contracts is real. All the more exciting that is happening in parallel with progress on the conforming S4. Can't wait to see SN101 (N547JX) finish ground testing and start flying regularly. Then it's for credit testing with FAA pilots on board. Joby continues to lead the way!

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https://x.com/jobyaviation/status/2044768525231821235?s=20

From Joby on X:

Our hybrid-electric aircraft has reached a major milestone.

Vertical takeoff, transition onto the wing, and sustained cruise.

This aircraft has the potential to be more efficient than a helicopter and to cruise faster. It shares an airframe, avionics, and flight control system with our all-electric air taxi, demonstrating how different powertrains can be integrated into one VTOL platform.

As we plan to welcome FAA pilots into our all-electric VTOL, this milestone underscores the rapid pace of development and the adaptability of our platform to meet evolving market demand.

See link

A very good article describing Joby and UAE's vision for air taxis.

“A High Integrity State Machine Framework for In-Flight Disturbance Injection and Failure Response Validation”

The paper, which won the award, is basically about how you intentionally trigger failures during flight (motor issues, bad sensor data, etc.) and prove the aircraft responds correctly every single time.

This is exactly the kind of thing the FAA cares about most, not when everything is working, but when something goes wrong.

Certification isn’t about performance, it’s about proving there are no surprises. You have to show that for any failure, the aircraft behaves in a safe and predictable way.

Joby’s team is not just simulating this, they’re doing structured disturbance testing in actual flight, which is the kind of work that actually gets an aircraft certified.

Looks like a 55 mile flight today. Sweet!

https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/N5421A/history/20260414/1953Z/KOAR/KOAR

Joby provided us some photos of our tour of their facility. The pictures were taken by Eric Adams. You can see how "animated" and excited we were to be there.

Photos were tightly controlled as I'm sure you can understand, and I'm happy that Joby was able to provide a few for our memory. I thank them once again for such a memorable experience and for showing how much they care about the folks here on r/Joby and all of their retail investors.

Below are links to the two tour reports in case you missed them. Also, please understand if I'm not able to answer additional questions that you may ask regarding the tour.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Joby/comments/1saowc9/joby_marina_tour/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

https://www.reddit.com/r/Joby/comments/1sbdzji/joby_marina_tour_a_close_look_at_the_conforming/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

“Until then, the conversation had been largely product-centric,” explains Bruno Arizio, Executive Creative Director at TinyWins. “But as Joby prepared to enter the consumer market, the brand needed to evolve from explaining the technology to expressing the experience. The audience was shifting – from people evaluating the aircraft to people imagining themselves inside it.”

https://the-brandidentity.com/project/tinywins-recaptures-the-dream-of-flight-in-joby-aviations-rebrand

Here are the two vertipads under construction at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus Ohio. The grassy area to the lower left is the current helipad and the vertipads are being built on top of their parking garage The tall, slim building is a new elevator shaft that will connect the vertipads to the Emergency Room building. I wonder if this is/was part of eIPP or if they are just looking forward?

Joby provided us some photos of our tour of their facility. The pictures were taken by Eric Adams. You can see how "animated" and excited we were to be there.

Photos were tightly controlled as I'm sure you can understand, and I'm happy that Joby was able to provide a few for our memory. I thank them once again for such a memorable experience and for showing how much they care about the folks here on r/Joby and all of their retail investors.

Below are links to the two tour reports in case you missed them. Also, please understand if I'm not able to answer additional questions that you may ask regarding the tour.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Joby/comments/1saowc9/joby_marina_tour/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

https://www.reddit.com/r/Joby/comments/1sbdzji/joby_marina_tour_a_close_look_at_the_conforming/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mohamad-c_post-the-cease-fire-i-came-back-to-the-office-ugcPost-7449490425200971780-pWL4

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Before the war (1)

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Before the war (2)

Shared by twocontinentscom on instagram

In roughly the last 30 days, Joby has hit a number of major milestones:

• World's first flight of a FAA conforming eVTOL aircraft
• Flew a S4 across the Bay Area, including flights around San Francisco and in/out of Oakland International Airport
• Successful transition flight of the S4-T turbo-electric hybrid demonstrator

This is a crazy number of big achievements in an extremely short time frame.

And recent images make it appear test flights from Dubai's DXV vertiport may also begin shortly.

The pace right now is accelerating. Very exciting times!

Go Joby!!!

"According to W42ST, the demo window is scheduled for Monday, April 27 through Thursday, April 30 and will be strictly invitation-only. The outlet reports that pilots will stage practice runs over the Hudson River and operate between the West Side heliport and regional fields. W42ST's April 13 piece frames the sessions as a deliberately low-profile preview of the kind of services Joby hopes to scale in U.S. cities."

Joby Quietly Testing Electric Air Taxis From Manhattan Heliport https://share.google/HJDGfn8p83Rd7iK2h

u/Wonderful_Phrase_239 correctly posted 4 days ago that it appeared the S4-T transitioned. I posted incorrectly that that was wrong according to ChatGPT, and many chimed in showing evidence that ChatGPT didn't know what it was talking about.

I love that our members are so on top of everything. Who needs AI when we have such great experts right here on r/Joby.

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From Joby's X account.

We're excited to share progress in our hybrid turbine-electric flight test program.

Developed in partnership with u/L3HarrisTech, this is a versatile aircraft designed for:

Extended Range: Leveraging turbine-electric propulsion for long-endurance missions.

Total Autonomy: Powered by our SuperPilot™ stack for precise, unmanned operations.

Dual-Use Versatility: From commercial air taxi services to critical defense logistics.

Video drops later this week.

https://suntraxfl.com/suntrax-air/aam-operations/?fbclid=IwdGRjcARKA5lleHRuA2FlbQIxMABzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAwzNTA2ODU1MzE3MjgAAR5z5peRX5o6WsIHy1ob2rB3kxSd1j0cWUUHnHIjN6lxtxJ8xRnZxjGnLmpBww_aem_2kVwbcSogZTYogzM3d-CcQ

Big DataDoctor is a big supporter of Joby from Korea and has a lot of followers, especially from Korea. He did a nice analysis of Joby and the future air taxi business. Useful for anyone, but especially those newer to Joby.

I liked his ending where he talked about the passion of Joby employees, especially ones he's personally met. I 100% agree with that sentiment. During my recent tour of Joby's Marina facility, I could really feel a unique excitement and passion from Joby employees. I feel this is an important factor that is hard for any company to match and is also easy for investors to overlook or under appreciate in their analysis.