Image Credits:Joby Aviation

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 Thursday said it had signed an agreement with defense contractor L3Harris Technologies to “explore opportunities” to develop a new aircraft class — specifically, a gas-turbine hybrid vertical take-off and landing aircraft that can fly autonomously — for defense applications.

The gas-turbine hybrid VTOL will be based on Joby’s 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 that flew 521 miles — more than two times farther than its battery electric prototype.

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.

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.

It’s 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 “finish line” with the DoD, Joby executive chairman Paul Sciarra told TechCrunch.

“One was that range was especially important,” he said. “We knew we had to make that shift.”

Sciarra added it was also important to demonstrate the so-called “missionization of its platform” — how its aircraft could be combined with the right sensors, autonomy, communications and payload to provide a clear use case for the DoD.

“We 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,” he said.

That’s where L3Harris comes in.

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.