Business leaders in Dayton listened to a California-based company’s new focus on building air taxis in the Miami Valley.
News Center 7 was the first to report that Joby Aviation was building a manufacturing facility in Dayton.
The Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce hosted the question-and-answer session with leaders from Job Aviation.
Tom Ubelhart, Dayton General Manager from Joby Aviation, said, “The facility here is starting off with small, high-volume components.”
He’s been with the company for six months, and he said he’s spent much of that time training at their offices in California.
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News Center 7 went to Joby’s California facility earlier this year. Now, they are starting to build parts at their facility at Dayton International Airport.
Lydon Sleeper, U.S. Strategic Policy Lead for Joby Aviation, said, “Our Dayton facility is going to produce hundreds of aircraft per year.”
He said it is a process before they start building things here at that scale. With many different certifications required, they hope to be entering the final phase soon.
“You can’t open and build the manufacturing facility too soon before certification because you’re spending a lot of money before you can make those aircraft commercially viable. You also can’t wait too long because if you wait too long, you’re losing a lot of market opportunity,” Sleeper said.
One local business leader wondered how loud these aircraft would be.
“You won’t hear our plane fly. So, it was designed and propellers designed to not hear inside the city,” Ubelhart said.
Chris Kershner, President and CEO of the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce, said, “This is a new way of travel in the future where you’re going to be able to click a travel app.”
He said bringing these business leaders together shows Joby the community they are coming into.
“We want to make sure they know about every local business opportunity they want. We want to make sure they know about our higher education organizations that can help produce tailored workforce programs to create their future workforce. We have everything they need in the Dayton region,” Kershner said.
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