Joby Aviation has completed what it describes as the first fully autonomous flight across the United States, using a converted Cessna 208B Caravan fitted with its autonomy technology. The 3,199-mile eastbound trip ended near Dare County Regional Airport in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, close to the Wright brothers’ first powered-flight site in Kitty Hawk, after the aircraft flew from California without any control inputs from the onboard safety pilot.
The flight formed part of Joby’s month-long 2026 Electric Skies tour, which began in Concord, California, and included scheduled stops in Phoenix, Fort Worth and Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina. Joby said the aircraft handled taxi, takeoff, cruise and landing autonomously, while operations were supervised remotely from its Autonomy Headquarters in California and from Shaw Air Force Base, as far as 2,323 miles away.
The company highlighted testing in busy airspace and around severe weather as part of the demonstration, presenting the system as relevant to freight, medical transport, disaster response and defence logistics. The aircraft was designated J208 during the tour.