Joby Aviation (JOBY) surges 7.7% intraday to $5.84

“We recently powered on the first of our aircraft designated for passenger testing. After years of imagining what it will feel like to fly with Joby, I'm very much looking forward to taking my first flight on that aircraft and telling you about it on our next financial results call.

Bevirt just put a deadline on himself: a human on board before the Q4 earnings call, which turns Joby's next quarter into a hard checkpoint rather than another progress update. For a $5.1 billion company with no revenue from passengers, piloted flight in its own aircraft is the milestone the FAA certification path hinges on.

“Our planned acquisition of Resonant Sciences will provide a dedicated home for our defense work, along with an experienced team and classified infrastructure, allowing our commercial aviation organization to remain focused on bringing our electric air taxi into service.

Joby is buying its way into classified defense work, with Resonant Sciences giving it the cleared infrastructure rivals have been scrambling to partner for. That walls off the military business so certification of the air taxi stays on schedule, and it gives the $5.1 billion company a revenue path that does not depend on the FAA.

“This quarter, we made important progress on the fifth and final stage of certification, completing a wide range of 'for credit' testing with the FAA. We significantly increased manufacturing output while improving efficiency, and demonstrated our electric air taxi in key early U.S. markets through the White House-backed eIPP program. Our J208 aircraft also completed what we believe to be the first fully autonomous flight of a civilian aircraft across the United States, and this morning we…

Joby is now in stage five of five with the FAA, running "for credit" testing, the last gate before commercial air taxi service. Bevirt paired that with a near $37 million expanded Air Force autonomy contract, revenue that arrives before certification does. Archer's pace on the same path is the comparison to keep watching.