Joby Completes First-Ever Fully Autonomous Flight Across the United States

Joby’s coast-to-coast autonomous flight demonstrates a maturing autonomy stack aimed at commercial, emergency and defense air logistics.

See more from StockTitan in Google Search and AI answers. Adds StockTitan as a preferred source · opens Google

Add on Google Not now

• Aircraft equipped with Joby’s autonomy technology completes first-ever autonomous flight across the United States, arriving in North Carolina’s Outer Banks
• Aircraft covered 3,199 miles with zero control inputs from onboard safety pilot, including autonomous taxi, takeoff, cruise, and landing, supervised remotely from up to 2,323 miles away
• Milestone demonstrates real-world operational maturity, safety, and dual-use utility of Joby’s autonomy technology for commercial freight, emergency response, and defense logistics
• Historic low pass over Kitty Hawk honors the birthplace of modern aviation while validating flexible, low-cost autonomous access to remote and regional communities

SANTA CRUZ, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Joby Aviation, Inc. (NYSE: JOBY) today announced that an aircraft equipped with its autonomy technology has completed the first-ever autonomous flight across the United States. The aircraft flew 3,199 miles with zero control inputs from its onboard safety pilot, concluding the eastbound leg of its month-long tour in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, near the site of the Wright brothers’ first powered flight.

Joby Aviation’s autonomous J208 aircraft shown in flight during key milestones of its historic 3,199-mile transcontinental journey across America. (Clockwise from top left) Departing the Pacific coast near Concord, CA (KCCR); flying over the San Francisco Bay Area skyline; navigating high-altitude mountain terrain across the American West; and completing a low pass past Bodie Island Lighthouse in North Carolina’s Outer Banks near Kitty Hawk. (Photo: Joby Aviation)

The aircraft, a converted Cessna Caravan, performed autonomous taxiing, takeoffs, route navigation, and landings under remote supervision from Joby’s Autonomy Headquarters in California and Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina, up to 2,323 miles away. The journey demonstrated the operational capabilities of Joby’s autonomy technology across a range of environments, supporting applications in commercial freight, medical transport, disaster response, and defense logistics.

By integrating an autonomous system onto an already-certified airframe, Joby offers a scalable path to autonomous air logistics. During the cross-country journey, the aircraft proved its ability to seamlessly integrate into high-density environments like Phoenix Deer Valley, one of the nation’s busiest general aviation airports, while rerouting around severe weather and thunderstorms in real time without prior airport familiarity.

“This journey across America offers a glimpse into a new era of aviation,” said JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and CEO of Joby Aviation. “Autonomy has an important role to play in the future of flight, allowing us to connect remote communities, deliver critical supplies, respond faster to disasters, support military operations, and keep pilots out of harm’s way.”

Completed Eastbound Milestones

As part of Joby’s 2026 Electric Skies tour, the eastbound leg featured flight demonstrations, logistics showcases, and key operational milestones across the following stops:

• Concord, CA (KCCR): Departed from Buchanan Field Airport, launching the 3,199-mile transcontinental autonomous flight route.
• Phoenix, AZ (KDVT): Demonstrated dual-use autonomy technologies for defense, first responders, and cargo applications, as part of Arizona's role in the uFLY coalition.
• Fort Worth, TX (KAFW): Showcased autonomous freight potential at Alliance Airport, a major U.S. industrial logistics hub. The stop coincided with Joby's first air taxi eIPP flight within the White House-backed program, hosted alongside U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
• Shaw Air Force Base, SC (KSSC): Conducted a capability demonstration of representative military flight operations and tactical defense readiness.
• Outer Banks, NC (KMQI): Marked the transcontinental milestone with an autonomous landing at Dare County Regional Airport.

Honoring Aviation History at Kitty Hawk & Expanding Remote Access

Following its transcontinental arrival, the J208 flew a historic low pass near the First Flight Monument at Kitty Hawk, honoring the site where Orville and Wilbur Wright ushered in the age of powered flight in 1903. The aircraft then landed at Dare County Regional Airport (KMQI), demonstrating how flexible, lower-cost autonomous flights can expand point-to-point air logistics and deliver critical medical supplies and emergency freight to remote, underserved communities.

In North Carolina, flights supported NCDOT's eLIFT-NC initiative for statewide healthcare logistics, while western flights contributed to UDOT's multi-state uFLY coalition to evaluate high-altitude, extreme-environment airspace integration for the FAA.

Proven Operational Track Record

Joby’s autonomous technology is grounded in more than 400 flights and 800 automated flight hours in controlled and uncontrolled airspace, building on the mature autonomy stack acquired from Xwing in 2024. The system has also been proven in three major U.S. military exercises, including Air Force readiness exercise Agile Flag, where it delivered critical replacement parts 24 hours faster than conventional logistics, and REFORPAC, where aircraft in Hawaii were operated remotely from Guam, nearly 4,000 miles away.

The aircraft will now begin its return westbound journey, including stops in Raleigh (KRDU), Fredericksburg/Washington, D.C. (KRMN), Louisville (KSDF), Wichita (KICT), Oklahoma City (KOKC), Salt Lake City (KSLC), and Portland (KPDX).

Media Availability & B-Roll: High-resolution video footage of the coast-to-coast flight and photos of coast-to-coast stops, including the Outer Banks landing, are accessible here.

About Joby Aviation

Joby Aviation, Inc. (NYSE: JOBY) is a next-generation aviation company based in California. Its aircraft, propulsion and autonomy technologies span both commercial aviation and defense applications. Joby also operates Blade, a leading urban air mobility business providing passenger transportation services in the United States and Europe. Joby intends to operate its fast, quiet and convenient air taxi service in cities around the world and sell its aircraft to other operators and partners. To learn more, visit www.jobyaviation.com.

Forward-Looking Statements ​​

This release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including but not limited to, statements regarding the development and performance of our aircraft, our regulatory outlook, progress and timing; our planned operations including locations of future demonstration flights; our business plan, objectives, goals and market opportunity; and our current expectations relating to our business, financial condition, results of operations, prospects, capital needs and growth of our operations. You can identify forward-looking statements by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. These statements may include words such as “anticipate”, “estimate”, “expect”, “project”, “plan”, “intend”, “believe”, “may”, “will”, “should”, “can have”, “likely” and other words and terms of similar meaning in connection with any discussion of the timing or nature of future operating or financial performance or other events. All forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially, including: our ability to launch our air taxi service and the growth of the urban air mobility market generally; our ability to produce aircraft that meet our performance expectations in the volumes and on the timelines that we project; the competitive environment in which we operate; our future capital needs; our ability to adequately protect and enforce our intellectual property rights; our ability to effectively respond to evolving regulations and standards relating to our aircraft; our reliance on third-party suppliers and service partners; uncertainties related to our estimates of the size of the market for our service and future revenue opportunities; and other important factors discussed in the section titled “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on February 27, 2026, our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, filed with the SEC on May 6, 2026, and in future filings and other reports we file with or furnish to the SEC. Any such forward-looking statements represent management’s estimates and beliefs as of the date of this release. While we may elect to update such forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we disclaim any obligation to do so, even if subsequent events cause our views to change.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260918301340/en/

Joby Media:
Christine Theodorou
press@jobyaviation.com

Joby Investors:
investors@jobyaviation.com

Source: Joby Aviation, Inc.

Key Terms

airframe technical

Airframe is the structural body of an aircraft — the wings, fuselage, tail and landing gear — not including engines or onboard systems. For investors it matters because the airframe determines a plane’s durability, maintenance and repair needs, regulatory approvals, production cost and resale value; like a car’s chassis, it largely shapes safety, operating expenses and how easily a model can be built or updated.