Joby Aviation Accelerates Plans for 2,000 New Manufacturing Jobs in Dayton
Purchase of Nearly 1 Million Square Foot Facility Affirms Joby’s Commitment to Manufacturing in Dayton
Joby Aviation, a California-based start up that is developing eVTOL “electric air mobility vehicles” has announced last week that it had agreed to buy a huge 728,000 industrial facility in Vandalia, adjacent to the Dayton Airport. The company has close ties to the U.S. Air Force and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Fairborn (SE Dayton MSA) through a number military contracts and its relationship with the Air Force Research Laboratory, which is based at Wright-Patterson. This development will bring new jobs to the region, which should support rental demand and the success of new multifamily investments in Dayton.
100 mile range at 200 miles per hour
Joby is developing all electric powered aircraft for commercial passenger service that can fit 4 passengers and 1 pilot, and that can take and land vertically (VTOL). The vehicles will have a range of approximately 100 miles and will travel at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour, making them suitable for delivering “flying taxi” service in congested urban areas like New York City, Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles.
The company has a blue chip list of strategic investors, including Toyota Motors, Delta Airlines and Uber Technologies. It also just announced a partnership with one of the largest owner/operators of parking lots in the United States (Metropolis) to develop 28 “vertiports” on parking lots in the urban locations it seeks to serve.
Other Alternative Fuels Under Development, Including Hydrogen
Joby’s strategy is broad, including commercial air service, a variety of applications with the Pentagon, as well as the commercialization of alternative aviation fuels such as hydrogen. In fact, last year, under a shroud of secrecy in Eastern Oregon, Joby is believed to have set a record for and unmanned aerial vehicle (“UAV”) in excess of 9 hours, powered exclusively by hydrogen.
Hydrogen’s only emission is water, and Joby’s VTOL technology could someday allow passenger flights between major cities like New York and Chicago without having to visit an airport and no greenhouse gas emissions.
Dayton’s Aviation Manufacturing Legacy Endures
Dayton was of course the home of Wilbur and Orville Wright, two aviation pioneers for whom the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is named. Wright-Patterson is a major USAF installation, one of the largest in the country, and it has continued the innovative work pioneered by the Wright brothers through the Air Force Research Laboratory, the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) and the co-located National Space Intelligence Center (NSIC)
Joby’s expanding presence in the region, and its plans to ramp production to four aircraft per day at its new Vandalia facility which is expected to employ thousands, will further solidify Dayton’s history of aviation innovation, and it will underscore and strengthen the recovery that has been underway in Dayton for the past 10-15 years