{"id":184263,"date":"2025-08-01T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/01\/joby-aviation-and-defense-contractor-l3harris-to-test-autonomous-hybrid-aircraft-techcrunch\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T12:00:00","slug":"joby-aviation-and-defense-contractor-l3harris-to-test-autonomous-hybrid-aircraft-techcrunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/01\/joby-aviation-and-defense-contractor-l3harris-to-test-autonomous-hybrid-aircraft-techcrunch\/","title":{"rendered":"Joby Aviation and defense contractor L3Harris to test autonomous hybrid aircraft | TechCrunch"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

Joby Aviation is often cast as a developer of commercial electric air taxis, but the publicly traded company has also pursued a separate track to market through a long-standing relationship with the U.S. Department of Defense. Now, its years of research and development with the Department of Defense may be paying off.<\/p>\n

The company on Thursday said it had signed an agreement with defense contractor L3Harris Technologies to \u201cexplore opportunities\u201d to develop a new aircraft class \u2014 specifically, a gas-turbine hybrid vertical take-off and landing aircraft that can fly autonomously \u2014 for defense applications.<\/p>\n

The gas-turbine hybrid VTOL will be based on Joby\u2019s current S4 aircraft platform. The company has focused on developing the S4 with an all-electric powertrain, but it last year demonstrated under government contract a hydrogen-electric hybrid version<\/a> that flew 521 miles \u2014 more than two times farther than its battery electric prototype.<\/p>\n

The agreement with L3Harris is exploratory, but the hope is that upcoming flights tests and operational demonstrations will lead to a military contract with the DoD. Joby said flight testing will start this fall, and operational demonstrations are expected in 2026.<\/p>\n

Joby has spent years developing and seeking Type 1 certification from the Federal Aviation Administration for its all-electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, which will be used to shuttle passengers short distances in urban areas. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s also worked with the DoD at the development stage for nearly a decade. Through that relationship, Joby homed in on what it would take to get to the \u201cfinish line\u201d with the DoD, Joby executive chairman Paul Sciarra told TechCrunch.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne was that range was especially important,\u201d he said. \u201cWe knew we had to make that shift.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Techcrunch event<\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t|<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 27-29, 2025<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Sciarra added it was also important to demonstrate the so-called \u201cmissionization of its platform\u201d \u2014 how its aircraft could be combined with the right sensors, autonomy, communications and payload to provide a clear use case for the DoD.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have two choices: either build a bunch of this stuff ourselves, or find an incredible partner that already has a deep understanding of those use cases and a ton of proven technology,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where L3Harris comes in. <\/p>\n

Jon Rambeau, president of Integrated Mission Systems at L3Harris, said the new vertical lift technology will enable long-range, crewed-uncrewed teaming for a range of missions. In this case, the gas-turbine hybrid VTOL aircraft could be used for low-altitude support missions, which could include contested logistics, electronic warfare, and counter unmanned aircraft systems, or C-UAS, Sciarra said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joby Aviation is often cast as a developer of commercial electric air taxis, but the publicly traded company has also pursued a separate track to market through a long-standing relationship with the U.S. Department of Defense. Now, its years of research and development with the Department of Defense may be paying off. The company on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":184264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-184263","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}