• 30 Apr 2022 01:00 AM
• 0

CAE Partners with Joby Aviation as Training Partner

On March 9, CAE announced it had partnered with Joby Aviation to develop and qualify flight simulation training devices that will be used to train the future pilots of Joby’s eVTOL aircraft. The announcement was made during a ceremony at Marina Municipal Airport in California. CAE will work with Joby to develop pilot training devices specifically for the company’s air taxi, building on the core simulation technology that Joby has been developing for the past five years to support its aircraft development program and its more recent partnership with the AFWERX Agility Prime initiative.

CAE stood up an organization within its Civil Aviation Training Solutions group in 2020 to support the eVTOL industry and has since publicly announced simulation and pilot training/maintenance training partnerships with four leading eVTOL manufacturers: Beta Technologies, Jaunt Air Mobility, Joby Aviation and Volocopter. Last year, CAE announced Project Resilience, a CAD$1B (USD$790M) investment into aviation technologies of the future.

Joby intends to both manufacture and operate its aircraft, requiring the company to train a new generation of pilots. Used to simulate aircraft flight in various environments and conditions, flight simulators are an integral part of readying pilots to fly a new type of aircraft. “We believe many pilots will consider flying for Joby to be a great career opportunity,” said Bonny Simi, Head of Air Operations and People for Joby. “In addition to flying an environmentally friendly aircraft with a great piloting experience, we’ll offer pilots a reliable schedule that allows them to be home every evening, a luxury not available to most professional pilots.”   

Joby Aviation announced on March 24 that it had resumed aircraft flight testing after its first prototype was destroyed in an accident on Feb. 16 (see “Pushing the Envelope: Joby Aviation in 2022,” Vertiflite, March/April 2022). Joby’s second pre-production aircraft has begun flight tests at the company’s production facility in Marina, California, after being air lifted by helicopter from the company’s facilities in Bonny Doon near Santa Cruz. The aircraft first flew in January (in Bonny Doon) and had made 38 flights by March 24, reaching speeds of more than 90 mph (145 km/h). The resumption of flight testing builds on Joby’s ambitious program to gather data for certification. The Santa Cruz, California-based eVTOL developer has already set multiple records, including flying at speeds greater than 200 mph (320 km/h) and at ranges beyond 150 miles (240 km).