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Joby Aviation is a United States venture-backed aviation company, developing an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft that it intends to operate as an air taxi service. Joby Aviation is headquartered in Santa Cruz, California, and has offices in San Carlos, California; Marina, California; and Munich, Germany. Joby Aviation was founded as Joby Aero on September 11, 2009 as one of several projects incubated by JoeBen Bevirt on his ranch in the Santa Cruz Mountains, using the proceeds from successful exits of previous companies. According to the company's website, the early years were spent exploring different components of electric aviation, including electric motors, flight software, and lithium-ion batteries. This research led Joby to participate in the NASA X-57 Maxwell and LEAPTech projects, before developing its own air taxi concept. Joby's early concept, publicly called the S2, had eight tilting propellers arrayed along the leading edge of its wing and four more tilting propellers mounted on its V-shaped tail. Later, the company moved to a configuration that features six rotating propellers. By 2015, the company was operating subscale prototypes of its eVTOL aircraft, moving to full-scale unmanned prototypes in 2017, and a production prototype in 2019. In 2018, the company announced a Series B funding round of $100 million, led by Toyota AI Ventures. By 2019, the company was in active conversations with the FAA about certifying the aircraft and announced a partnership with Uber's Elevate division. For its first ten years, Joby operated in stealth mode, sometimes leading to skepticism of the company's claims. The first journalist granted access to the aircraft in 2018 agreed not to disclose details about the aircraft. In 2020, however, the company began releasing significantly more information, starting with its January announcement of a $590 million funding round, led by Toyota Motor Corporation. At that announcement, the company revealed its production vehicle. In January 2020, Bevirt was a keynote speaker at the meeting of the Vertical Flight Society. The Joby air taxi is intended to be a four-passenger commercial aircraft with a pilot, capable of traveling up to 150 miles (240 km) on a single charge at a top speed of 200 mph (320 km/h), with a maximum payload of 1,000 pounds. It is designed to take off and land vertically like a helicopter, and transition to horizontal cruise like a fixed-wing aircraft. Nearly silent in flight, the electric-powered aircraft is designed to operate with no emissions and to be 100 times quieter during takeoff and landing than a helicopter. Joby plans to mass-produce its eVTOL, with a plan to operate a piloted on-demand air-taxi service. The aircraft will be operated as a service with per-trip passenger pricing. Joby described the Uber Elevate acquisition as a way to accelerate its commercial launch through Elevate's tools and personnel. Elevate had previously operated a service called Uber Copter, which allowed all Uber users in the New York area to book a trip to John F. Kennedy International Airport, with a car taking riders to a heliport and a helicopter then taking riders to the airport. While the service used Bell 430 helicopters with Uber branding, the aircraft were operated by a separate helicopter company, Heliflite. Joby Aviation cited Elevate's software tools enabling market selection, demand simulation and multi-modal operations as the reasons to purchase Elevate, suggesting the acquisition may play a significant role in Joby's commercial service. Joby has not commented on whether it will continue Elevate's plans to launch in Los Angeles, Dallas, and Melbourne. In Dec 2024 Joby became the first company to fly in Korea’s K-UAM Grand Challenge. For details of development financing, click here. Flying Joby's Electric Air Taxi with a Pilot On Board

The Lange Antares is a glider built by Lange Aviation produced with three different wingspans, 18, 20 and 23 meters. The 20 and 23 meter variants can be equipped with a 42-kW electric motor and SAFT VL 41M lithium-ion batteries. The EM 42 is a fixed-shaft brushless DC electric motor running at 190-288 V, and drawing up to 160 A, the 42 kW motor can deliver up to 216 N.m of torque over a speed range of 160-1600 RPM with a total efficiency of 90%. Maximum continuous power is 38.5 kW, the motor weighs 29 kg, and the weight of power electronics is 10 kg. The motor turns a two-blade fixed-pitch propeller, LF-P42, constructed of composite materials, having a diameter of two meters. The battery system consists of two battery packs positioned in the leading edges of both inner wings (72 cells divided into 24 modules containing 3 cells each). The battery life is expected to be 3000 cycles or 20 years. The capacity of the battery is 41 Ah (specific energy 136 Wh/kg and specific peak power 794 W/kg). The batteries can deliver 13 minutes at maximum power and maximum climb speed, and can climb 3,000 meters on one battery charge; in reality, in warm climates, motor and electronics temperature limitations can limit the achievable climb height. The charger is integrated inside the fuselage so when landing elsewhere the pilot merely has to find a (16A) electric outlet socket. The glider has a modem connected to its main computer so that Lange technicians can, in theory, run diagnostics remotely. The same modem allows the pilot remote control & monitoring of the battery charging process. The undercarriage and engine doors are electro-hydraulically operated. The tailwheel is steerable. The wing has an elliptical planform, with winglets and wing-tip wheels. The glide polar shows excellent high speed performance. Variants Antares 18S - 18 meter wingspan pure glider. Antares 18T - 18 meter wingspan glider with Solo 2350 two-stroke gasoline sustainer engine. Antares 20E - 20 meter wingspan with 42 kW electric self-launch capable engine. Antares 23E - 23 meter wingspan with 42 kW electric self-launch capable engine.

The Electric Aircraft Corporation ElectraFlyer-C is an American experimental electric aircraft that was designed by Randall Fishman and produced by his company Electric Aircraft Corporation in 2008. The aircraft is a converted Monnett Moni motor glider intended to test electric propulsion technology for the future Electric Aircraft Corporation ElectraFlyer-X. The design was only intended as a prototype and proof of concept aircraft. The aircraft features a cantilever low-wing, a single-seat enclosed cockpit with a bubble canopy, fixed conventional landing gear and a single 18 hp (13 kW) electric motor in tractor configuration. The sole example built is registered in the US Experimental - Amateur-built category. Constructed from a Monnett Moni motorglider with taildragger landing gear, the original fuselage and wing were retained, but the tail section and tailwheel were extended to improve control on the ground, and to elevate the fuselage. The aircraft is made from sheet aluminum. Its 45.6 ft (13.9 m) span wing has an area of 157 sq ft (14.6 m²). The motor is an 18-horsepower ElectraFlyer direct-drive propulsion kit DC electric motor, powered by a pair of custom-made 5.6 kwh lithium-ion polymer battery packs, weighing 75 pounds (34 kilograms). The batteries are mounted in custom-made, ceramic-stainless steel firewall boxes, sized to fit the space available in the fuselage. The motor returns an 88% efficiency (90% at cruise), with the motor controller consuming 2% of the power. The batteries fitted give an endurance of 1.5 hours and take six hours to recharge at a cost of 70 cents for the power consumed. While descending the propeller generates power to recharge the batteries. The ElectraFlyer-C received its airworthiness certificate on 11 April 2008. Fishman indicated that he would sell the aircraft in April 2009, but as of February 2017 it remains owned by his company.