www.montereycountynow.com SEPTEMBER 4-10, 2025 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 21 in the air. The Joby craft even has a button on the joystick to automatically level it out. It’s now time to fly to the virtual Monterey Regional Airport, and by pushing the joystick forward, the aircraft’s six propellers transition from a vertical position to horizontal, an important defining feature of the aircraft that makes it a cross between a traditional airplane and a helicopter (known by its acronym of eVTOL— electric vertical take-off and landing). The simulated sound of the propellers goes nearly silent as they transition from hover mode to flight, and the plane begins its ascent over a computer-generated version of the Monterey Peninsula, complete with trails on Fort Ord National Monument and traffic on Highway 1. Monterey’s airport comes into view—now is the time to land. Wilson says to press and hold one button on the instrument cluster that brings the aircraft down to a landing speed. With no fuss, the aircraft slows down, the propellers return to their vertical position, and it’s back on solid ground. With a handshake, Wilson offers congratulations on a job well done. He also points to the experience as how relatively quick it is to learn how to fly a Joby aircraft compared to a helicopter or other traditional aircraft, as evidenced by this test pilot whose only flying experience comes from video games. Training pilots may be by far the fastest part of Joby’s nearly two-decade-long process to turn its vision into reality. In 2009, JoeBen Bevirt founded Joby from a ranch in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where a team of engineers worked on components such as electric motors and lithium-ion batteries. Bevirt remains the CEO of the company, which got off the ground thanks to the proceeds from Bevirt’s other companies that he sold, such as Velocity11, which developed robotic laboratory systems, and Joby Inc., which created products such as the Gorillapod camera tripod. According to a history provided by the company, Joby partnered with NASA in 2012 on electric flight projects. The company’s first full-scale demonstrator aircraft took flight in 2017, with a pre-production prototype following in 2019. The next year, Joby expanded with a manufacturing facility at the Marina Municipal Airport. The company was beginning to turn heads—and was about to cause a little political drama. In 2023, Joby searched nationwide for a new, 580,000-square-foot manufacturing facility. Marina was on the list, but didn’t make the cut, with some A Joby aircraft flies above the Marina Municipal Airport remotely during a recent testing. Over the past year, Joby has ramped up its in-person and autonomous testing at the airport. Peter Wilson, director of flight standards and training at Joby, demonstrates how to use Joby’s in-house simulator. The program includes a replica of the aircraft’s flight deck with functional controls that translate to actions on the screen, giving Joby pilots flying experience before they undergo the real thing. Photos by Daniel Dreifuss
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