Joby vs Archer

Joby and Archer have taken parallel but distinct paths through FAA type certification. Joby entered the Type Inspection Authorisation stage with the first conforming aircraft airborne in March 2026, placing it at the final regulatory step before commercial operations. Archer became the first eVTOL manufacturer to receive 100 percent FAA acceptance of its Means of Compliance, and in April 2026 became the first to close Phase 3 of the FAA's four-phase type certification process, a structural prerequisite for the final phase rather than the finish line itself.

The certification race is, on the public record, marginally favouring Joby. The TIA stage and the operational record of 850-plus piloted flights with 50,000-plus fleet miles in 2025 represent a more advanced regulatory posture than Archer's Phase 3 position. However, Archer's certification trajectory remains structurally aligned with a 2026 commercial launch window, and the fixed-wing tilt-rotor architecture differs from Joby's design in ways the FAA may evaluate at different paces.

The comparison changed shape in July 2026. At the Farnborough International Airshow on 20 July, Archer and Anduril unveiled Thunder, a Group 5 hybrid-electric tiltrotor designed to fly as a pilotless wingman in formation with crewed platforms including the AH-64 Apache and MV-75 Cheyenne II, according to The War Zone. What was shown was a mockup reflecting what Anduril calls a mature outer mold-line; Thunder has not flown, and first flight is targeted for 2027. Two days later Archer announced Halo, a commercial cargo and offshore variant of the same airframe, with Marubeni Aerospace Corporation named by Archer as launch partner.

This gives Archer a second thesis: the same eVTOL-derived airframe sold into both defence autonomy and civil logistics. Joby has taken a different route into defence. On 11 August 2026 it announced a definitive agreement to acquire Resonant Sciences, a Dayton, Ohio-based defense technology company, for approximately $500 million, with closing expected in the first half of 2027 subject to customary conditions including regulatory reviews. Our assessment: Archer is building a defence product on its own airframe, while Joby is buying an existing defence business. For an investor, the Archer fork cuts both ways: Thunder adds a defence-procurement option on Archer's technology, and it also adds a programme whose first flight, production timeline, and contract position are all still ahead of it.

Joby is in the fifth and final stage of FAA type certification, the type inspection authorisation stage, which it entered with its first conforming aircraft flying in March 2026. Its second-quarter results on 5 August 2026 described the quarter as its strongest progress yet in that stage and said Joby is targeting first passengers in 2026, with its first flights under the White House eIPP programme expected in Texas in September. Those Texas flights began on 10 September, per Joby. Archer closed the third of four phases of its certification programme in April 2026. Both companies describe certification as still in progress in their second-quarter 2026 reports.

Both companies have kept flying since their second-quarter reports. On 19 October 2026 Archer said its Midnight air taxi completed several days of piloted flights in the Bay Area, reaching top speeds of 131 mph and flying over 200 miles across Northern California. On 18 September 2026 Joby said an aircraft equipped with its autonomy technology flew 3,199 miles across the United States with zero control inputs from its onboard safety pilot. That aircraft was a converted Cessna Caravan, not Joby's eVTOL, so the flight demonstrates the autonomy software rather than the air taxi.

On 29 October 2026 Archer and ITA Airways, a member of the Lufthansa Group, announced an agreement to partner on an all-electric air taxi network in Italy. The release says the partners will explore a range of solutions, and that the agreements it refers to remain conditional, subject to the future execution of definitive agreements.

The next fixed data points are the third-quarter reports. Joby expects to report after market close on Wednesday 4 November 2026, and Archer after market close on Monday 9 November 2026. The October 2026 company releases checked for each (Joby's investor-relations list; Archer's releases as carried by StockTitan) do not announce an FAA type certificate. The eVTOL certification tracker, linked under Sources, sets out programmes side by side.

On a like-for-like basis, Joby held $2,263.8 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments at 30 June 2026 and Archer held $1,560.6 million, per each company's quarterly report on Form 10-Q. The two used similar amounts of cash in operations in the first half of 2026: $317.6 million at Joby and $305.5 million at Archer. Archer's first-half net loss was larger, at $480.9 million against Joby's $355.4 million. In its 5 August 2026 results, Joby anticipated using between $385 million and $415 million of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments in the second half of 2026. These balances are as of 30 June 2026; Archer's deal with Boeing was signed on 9 August 2026. Separately, Joby said it expects to fund the Resonant Sciences acquisition with approximately $450 million in cash and $50 million in Joby common stock, and in August expected the deal to close in the first half of 2027.

Joby holds the larger absolute liquidity position. With $2.3 billion in cash and short-term investments as of 30 June 2026, Joby has the runway to absorb its accelerating certification cost curve. The 2025 net loss of $929.8 million, up from $608 million in 2024, reflects late-stage certification spend and Blade-acquisition integration. Toyota's continued strategic investment provides industrial scaling capability inside the Joby vertical-integration model.

Archer has built a different scaling model. The Stellantis commitment of up to $400 million for manufacturing ramps Archer's production capacity to 650 aircraft annually. The United Airlines purchase agreement of up to $1.5 billion remains the largest committed eVTOL aircraft order from a US airline. The aggregate effect is similar to Joby's industrial backing but distributed across automotive and airline partners rather than concentrated in Toyota.