HANGAR TALK UAS & eVTOL NEWS RELATING TO UNCREWED, AAM & EVTOL SYSTEMS
Joby Launches eIPP Flights in Texas
The state of Texas officially kicked off its first White House- backed eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP) flights. Joby Aviation Inc. carried out a week-long flight campaign across the Dallas-Fort Worth region. The Joby eVTOL aircraft will fly real-world routes across North Texas, including direct flights into Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) and major urban hubs.
Framed against the North Texas skyline, the campaign builds on electric air taxi demonstrations conducted earlier this year, including flights in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City, and shows the aircraft’s ability to integrate into busy airspace. Conducted under TxDOT’s winning Project Nexus proposal, part of the U.S. Department of Transportation eIPP initiative announced in March 2026, the North Texas flights bring together federal, state, and local governments with private industry to accelerate the safe integration of electric air taxis into U.S. airspace.
Throughout the week, Joby flew missions between Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport, key urban locations, and DFW Airport, one of the world’s busiest and most connected airports. These flights were expected to generate the real- world operational data the FAA needs to build safety rules for commercial service at scale.
The effort builds on years of airspace research with the FAA and NASA, which began studying electric air taxi integration in North Texas in 2018. A 2023 high-fidelity simulation by Joby and NASA at the Future Flight Central facility at the agency’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley examined the feasibility of operating up to 50 electric air taxi operations per hour at the DFW terminal area. To support this campaign and long-term growth in the region, Joby recently leased a 45,000-square-foot facility at Perot Field within the AllianceTexas Mobility Innovation Zone.
The typical Dallas-Fort Worth driver loses around 44 hours a year to traffic congestion, according to independent transportation
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research. Joby’s long-term vision is to give communities that time back, offering commercial air taxi service that could one day turn long, frustrating highway drives into quick, emission- free flights.
Texas offers a distinct opportunity for this next era of aviation: a fast-growing population, expanding infrastructure, and through the eIPP, a framework for government and industry to work together early. AFW and DFW both already handle heavy daily traffic by keeping public agencies and private operators in sync. These flights are intended to demonstrate the same system can work for electric air taxis too.
“I’m incredibly excited by the potential for vertical lift in Texas, a state with the infrastructure, expertise, and partnerships to help lead the next era of American aviation,” said JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO of Joby. “With TxDOT’s leadership and support, the eIPP gives us an incredible opportunity to bring our aircraft into urban areas and accelerate our path to commercial service. This is just the beginning of what Texas and Joby can build together.”
“Advanced Air Mobility vehicles are the future of aviation and these demonstrations in Texas are critical to getting us there,” said FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford. “The FAA is leveraging data from test flights in Texas and across the country to ensure these new aircraft integrate safely into the airspace.”
“Under President Trump, we are unlocking the future of flight and empowering innovators to build and test these exciting aircraft right here in the U.S.,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy. “Today marks another critical step in our work to reshape how people and products move for the better.”
As Joby advances through the fifth and final stage of FAA type certification, supported by ongoing testing of its conforming aircraft for Type Inspection Authorization (TIA), the flights demonstrate the operational maturity, acoustic performance, and airspace integration required to launch commercial air taxi service at scale.
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