Joby Aviation is often molded as a programmer of commercial electric taxiomic taxi, but the company negotiating in the public has also sought a separate market route through a long -standing relationship with the US Department of Defense. Now, years of research and development with the Ministry of Defense may be attributed.
The company said on Thursday that it had signed an agreement with defense contractor L3Harris Technologies to “investigate opportunities” to develop a new category of aircraft-in particular, a hybrid aircraft from vertical take-off and land landing that can be thrown.
The natural gas VTOL hybrid will be based on Joby’s current aircraft platform. The company has focused on the development of the S4 with an electric engine, but last year it turned out to be a government-owned government-electric hybrid version that threw 521 miles more than twice as much longer than the battery’s electric prototype.
The agreement with the L3HARRIS is exploratory, but the hope is that upcoming flight tests and operational demonstrations will lead to a military contract with DOD. Joby said flight tests will start this fall and business demonstrations are expected in 2026.
Joby has spent years of development and type 1 certification search by the Federal Air Force Administration for electric vertical take -off and landing aircraft, which will be used to transport passengers at short distances in urban areas.
He has also worked with DOD at the development stage for almost a decade. Through this relationship, Joby fell into what he would need to reach the “finish line” with Dod, Joby President Paul Sciarra, told TechCrunch.
“One was that the series was particularly important,” he said. “We knew we had to make this shift.”
TechCrunch event
Francisco
|
27-29 October 2025
Sciarra added that it was also important to prove the so-called “platform mission”-how its aircraft could be combined with the right sensors, autonomy, communications and payload to provide a clear case for DOD.
“We have two options: either to build a bunch of these things, or to find an incredible partner who already has a deep understanding of these cases and a tone of proven technology,” he said.
That’s where the L3Harris comes.
Jon Rambeau, president of integrated mission systems to L3Harris, said the new vertical lifting technology will allow grouping in a large range, breaking for a series of missions. In this case, the VTOL hybrid aircraft could be used for low altitude support missions, which could include controversial logistics, electronic warfare and compensated aircraft or C-UA systems, SCIARRA said.
