Joby Is Flying Into DFW Now — and Its Certification Aircraft Is Already in the Air

On September 10, Texas kicked off its first White House-backed eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP) flights, with Joby Aviation flying a week-long campaign across the Dallas–Fort Worth region — real-world routes into one of the busiest airspaces in America, including direct flights into Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.

The campaign, run under the Texas Department of Transportation's winning Project Nexus proposal — part of the U.S. Department of Transportation eIPP initiative announced in March 2026 — flew missions between Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport, key urban locations, and DFW's corporate aviation facility, with a round-trip over Arlington demonstrating low-noise operations and a run along the planned route to Toyota Motor North America's headquarters in Plano. Flights like these exist to generate the operational data the FAA needs to write safety rules for commercial air taxi service at scale.

“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. 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.”

— JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and CEO of Joby Aviation

Joby is putting down roots to match: the company has leased a 45,000-square-foot facility at Perot Field, inside the AllianceTexas Mobility Innovation Zone, as its long-term operating presence in North Texas. The campaign builds on years of airspace work with the FAA and NASA stretching back to 2018 — including a 2023 high-fidelity simulation with NASA that examined operating up to 50 electric air taxi movements per hour in the DFW terminal area.

The other flight that matters more

Texas is the showcase; Marina, California is the exam room. Joby has begun flight testing the first aircraft built for the final phase of FAA type certification — registered N547JX — at its Marina test facility. The aircraft was produced to designs approved by FAA engineering representatives and inspected under the company's test plans. Joby pilots fly first; then FAA crews begin “for credit” Type Inspection Authorization testing, the last gate before type certification. Joby says it has accumulated more than 40,000 miles of flight testing across its program, including a 2025 piloted flight between two public airports — Marina Municipal to Monterey Regional.

“Advanced Air Mobility vehicles are the future of aviation and these demonstrations in Texas are critical to getting us there. The FAA is leveraging data from test flights in Texas and across the country to ensure these new aircraft integrate safely into the airspace.”

— Bryan Bedford, FAA Administrator

The disruption here is administrative, which is precisely why it matters. Air taxis do not fail for lack of lift; they fail in certification queues and airspace rules that were written for a different century. A federal pilot program flying paying-attention routes into DFW, run in parallel with the first conforming aircraft's test campaign, is what an industry crossing from demonstration to infrastructure actually looks like.