On Saturday, March 7, members of Monterey Bay Region gathered at Chili’s for a tour to Joby Aviation in Marina. Interest in this tour was so high that the 35 spaces filled up in the first 2 hours after it was announced. So a wait list was started, with a second tour to take place, and the spaces in the second tour filled up as well.
Joby is a manufacturer of electric aircraft that can hover like a helicopter or fly like a plane, and is a public company. The aircraft can carry 2-4 passengers or about 800 pounds and can go up to 200 MPH, making them suitable for use as air taxis. The company has a facility in Marina that makes the bodies of the aircraft and another facility in San Carlos that makes the engines. We had two employees of Joby as tour guides, Charles Dayton and Malisha Wijesinghe. Both have Porsche 944s and are members of Monterey Bay Region. Charles is an operations manager – he says he gets the engineers to file their reports. Malisha works in inspections and quality control.
Getting to Joby was simple since they are located at the Marina Airport. We split into two groups for the drive and then again for the tour, with one group going with Charles and the other group going with Malisha. Although Joby has several buildings at the airport, we focused on two – the manufacturing building and a hanger where several aircraft are housed. We also saw a Joby Skyport – essentially a waiting area for Joby customers.
The manufacturing process uses composites for light weight. Once the parts are manufactured, they are cured in autoclaves. They are checked for voids (air pockets) before they are used. The final results were visible in the hanger with the aircraft, along with a small airplane for following the aircraft while they are in the air being tested. Joby hopes to have their aircraft in commercial use by late in 2027.
After the tour, the group headed out on Reservation Road to Highway 68, then west on Highway 68 to Laureles Grade, which we took to Carmel Valley Road. Once there, we headed west again to Woody’s restaurant at Del Mesa Carmel, off of Carmel Valley Road. Here we had an excellent lunch and good conversation to finish off the tour.
To view the PHOTO GALLERY, click on any image above.
A big thank you to Charles Dayton and Malisha Wijesinghe for arranging our visit and serving as our guides. We also thank Mark and Al for organizing the event.
