Joby Aviation rolled its mobile eVTOL flight simulator onto the tarmac at the 2026 Dayton Air Show this weekend, giving attendees a guided preview of the S4 air taxi before the aircraft enters commercial service. The Dayton activation is the latest stop on Joby's Electric Skies Tour, a more-than-a-dozen-city roadshow designed to seed familiarity with electric vertical takeoff and landing flight in cities that could become early operating markets.
Hometown Of The Wright Brothers, Future Of Joby
Dayton is also Joby's chosen manufacturing hub: the company picked the city in 2023 as the site of its first scaled eVTOL production plant. The hometown of the Wright brothers is not yet producing any S4 aircraft, but Joby is building out facilities targeting an annual run rate of around 500 units once certification is complete. Joby chose to host this weekend's demonstrations at Dayton International Airport (KDAY).
Two Real Training Sims From CAE Behind The Scenes
The mobile simulator at the Dayton Air Show is intentionally simple and welcoming — less complex and more intuitive than the two full-motion devices Joby has accepted from CAE for FAA-certified pilot training. The CAE simulators sit inside Joby's pilot academy and are expected to train up to 250 pilots a year for service entry under the FAA's powered-lift rules. Joby flew its first FAA-conforming Type Inspection Authorization aircraft on March 11, 2026 and is closing in on commercial passenger service.
An eVTOL Race Heats Up Around Joby
The Dayton tour stop comes as the FAA's eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP) selects projects across 26 states for live commercial airspace work, with public-facing operations promised this summer. Rival operators are circling: a federal judge recently dismissed Archer's fraud counterclaim against Joby, while Eve Air Mobility is finishing its hover-flight test block and Vertical Aerospace is testing hybrid-electric integration. For Joby, building a runway of public familiarity with eVTOL flight may be as important to launch as the cert paperwork itself.
Reporting based on coverage from Flying Magazine and Joby Aviation.