The week ahead in eVTOL type certification — Joby, Archer, and the FAA's powered lift pivot

Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation are the two companies furthest along in FAA type certification for electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, both working under the new powered lift category finalized in October 2024. Type certification is now in the for-credit flight testing phase, with current guidance pointing to 2026 for completion. The technology is real, but the timeline is longer than press releases suggest, and the infrastructure to operate these aircraft at scale doesn’t yet exist.

What Is an eVTOL Aircraft?

eVTOL stands for electric vertical takeoff and landing. The concept: an aircraft that lifts off like a helicopter, transitions to wing-borne flight like an airplane, and runs on batteries instead of turbine fuel.

A pre-flight on one of these aircraft looks nothing like a piston single. There’s no mixture control, no fuel sample. Engineers check battery state-of-charge, inverter temperatures, and software loads.

Why the FAA Created the “Powered Lift” Category

For roughly seventy years, the FAA had two primary aircraft categories: airplanes and rotorcraft. Anything that behaved like both required a patchwork of special conditions to certify.

In October 2024, the FAA finalized the Powered Lift Special Federal Aviation Regulation (SFAR), which establishes the pilot training and operating framework for this new category. The rule is now in effect. The type certificates for the aircraft themselves are not.

That gap—between the rule existing and the aircraft being legal to carry passengers—is the central issue right now.

How FAA Type Certification Actually Works

Type certification is not a single ribbon-cutting event. It’s hundreds of test points spread across years. For each one, the manufacturer must demonstrate the aircraft meets a specific requirement: structural load, battery thermal runaway containment, flight control response after motor failure, seat crashworthiness.

Joby has publicly tracked progress through a four-stage process:

Stage 1 — Certification basis (which rules apply)
Stage 2 — Means of compliance (how compliance will be proven)
Stage 3 — Certification plans (detailed test documents)
Stage 4 — Compliance testing, also called “for-credit” testing, where results enter the permanent record

The phrase that matters is for-credit flight testing. Many companies fly many hours, but only for-credit hours are accepted by the FAA as evidence. Joby is deep into this phase. Archer is slightly behind on the same playbook.

Joby S4 vs. Archer Midnight: Two Design Philosophies

Joby’s S4 is a six-rotor design carrying five passengers and one pilot, with a cruise speed of about 200 mph and a claimed range of approximately 150 miles. All six rotors tilt—pointed up in hover, forward in cruise. That transition between rotor-borne and wing-borne flight is the single most difficult part of any tiltrotor design. The V-22 Osprey spent decades working through it.

Electric motors help here: response time is in milliseconds rather than seconds, which makes flight control software far more capable. The challenge is weight. A fully discharged battery weighs exactly the same as a fully charged one, so landing weight equals takeoff weight. That drives structural requirements, which drive weight, which drive battery size—a spiral engineers spend careers fighting.

Archer’s Midnight uses a different architecture: twelve rotors, six that tilt and six fixed for vertical lift only. This is called lift-plus-cruise. It’s mechanically simpler, but the lift-only rotors become dead weight and drag in cruise. Archer’s bet: lower complexity certifies faster.

When Will eVTOLs Actually Be Certified?

Both companies have consistently pushed certification dates to the right. Joby originally targeted 2024, then 2025. Current guidance is 2026. Archer has followed a similar pattern.

This is not unusual. The Boeing 787 slipped. The Airbus A350 slipped. Even the Cirrus Vision Jet slipped by years. Certification always takes longer than expected. The companies that survive are the ones capitalized well enough to outlast the slips.

The Financial Side: Why Cash Burn Matters

Both Joby and Archer are publicly traded, with quarterly earnings calls coming up in the next few weeks disclosing cash burn, remaining runway, and progress metrics.

Joby has a partnership with Toyota, which has invested heavily and is helping with manufacturing scale-up. Launch customer: Delta Air Lines.
Archer has a partnership with Stellantis (Jeep and Chrysler’s parent). Launch customer: United Airlines.

These partnerships are strategic, but balance sheet cash is what pays the engineers.

The Honest Pros of eVTOL Technology

Noise reduction. Distributed electric propulsion is dramatically quieter than turbine helicopters. The Joby S4 in hover measures around 65 decibels at 300 feet. A Robinson R44 at the same distance is closer to 80 dB. Decibels are logarithmic—that’s the difference between annoying the neighbors and not.

Operating cost. Electricity per flight hour is a fraction of Jet A. Maintenance on electric motors is dramatically lower than turbines: no hot section inspections, no oil changes, no bleed air systems.

Safety architecture. Multiple redundant motors mean a six-motor eVTOL can lose one motor and keep flying. A single-engine helicopter loses its engine and you’re autorotating.

The Honest Cons

Range. 150 miles is the manufacturer number under ideal conditions—new batteries, standard day, no headwind, minimum reserves. Real-world range will be less, and significantly less after a few hundred charge cycles. This is a short-hop aircraft, not a cross-country aircraft.

Infrastructure. Vertiports, high-capacity charging, and air traffic integration don’t exist at scale. Some of it doesn’t exist at all. Aircraft could be certified next year and have nowhere useful to operate.

Weather limitations. Initial certification is targeted at VFR conditions with relatively narrow operating envelopes. Ice is particularly problematic—battery performance drops with cold, and ice protection draws significant power. IFR and all-weather capability is years away.

Battery physics. Lithium-ion energy density hasn’t changed dramatically in a decade. No one has shipped a solid-state breakthrough at scale. Today’s chemistry puts a hard ceiling on range and payload.

What This Means for Working Pilots

General aviation pilots: This technology is not coming for your job—not for a long time, maybe not ever. eVTOL economics favor short urban missions, not the cross-country, training, and personal transportation GA serves. Piper Archers and Cessna Skyhawks will be teaching people to fly for decades.

Commercial pilots: The adjacency is air taxi service feeding your hubs. Joby and Archer are partnering with major airlines specifically for airport shuttle missions—8 minutes from downtown Manhattan to JFK, 12 minutes from downtown Los Angeles to LAX. It’s not replacing you. It’s feeding you.

Flight instructors: Pay attention to the powered lift SFAR. The FAA created a pathway for existing commercial pilots with rotorcraft or airplane ratings to add powered lift authorization through ground school, simulator time, and in-aircraft training. The early instructor cohort will define the standards.

Insurance watchers: Aviation insurance is a lagging indicator of perceived risk. When eVTOL rates stabilize and hull coverage becomes reasonable, that’s a real signal. Right now, it’s speculative.

International and Research Milestones to Watch

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has been running its own certification process in parallel. Lilium (Germany) was pursuing EASA certification before recent financial troubles. Volocopter has targeted operations around the 2024 Paris Olympics and beyond. EASA milestones often precede similar FAA moves by a few months.

The Vertical Flight Society’s annual forum in May features pre-conference technical presentations that often reveal what companies have actually tested versus what they’re claiming in press releases.

NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility National Campaign continues with scheduled flight tests at several sites. NASA doesn’t certify, but it generates public-domain data on acoustic signatures and air traffic integration that informs FAA rulemaking.

The Honest Bottom Line

The powered lift certification effort is real. The engineering is real. Functioning prototypes have flown for-credit hours with federal inspectors on board. This is not vaporware.

But the timeline is longer than press releases suggest, the economics are not yet proven, and the infrastructure is not ready. Anyone claiming they’ll commute by eVTOL next year is probably wrong. Anyone claiming it will never happen is probably also wrong.

This follows the pattern of every new aviation technology. ADS-B took from roughly 1995 to 2020 to go from concept to mandate. GPS went from military curiosity to primary navigation over decades. Autopilots went from science fiction to standard equipment. Powered lift is somewhere around the optional-but-real phase of that curve.

Key Takeaways

Joby and Archer are the U.S. leaders in eVTOL certification, both targeting 2026 under the FAA’s new powered lift category
The Powered Lift SFAR was finalized in October 2024, creating the training and operating framework—but type certificates are not yet issued
For-credit flight testing is the metric that matters, not total flight hours
Real-world range will be well under the 150-mile manufacturer claim, especially as batteries age
eVTOLs will likely feed airline hubs with short shuttle missions, not replace general aviation or long-haul flying
Watch quarterly earnings, EASA announcements, and insurance rates—these are leading indicators more reliable than press releases