Joby Aviation flew its electric air taxi from Albert Whitted Airport to Tampa International Airport on Friday morning, 112 years after Tony Jannus flew the world’s first scheduled airline flight on the same route.

The aircraft, a preproduction prototype with the tail number N545JX, lifted off at 10:01 a.m. and landed 20 minutes later on TPA’s Runway 1R, FLYING Magazine’s Jack Daleo reports. An electric plane from Beta Technologies, the conventional kind that needs a runway, flew alongside it with a helicopter escort. Joby’s aircraft takes off like a helicopter, tilts its six propellers forward, and cruises at about 200 mph with a pilot and four passengers. The company says it is much quieter than a helicopter.

Beta’s Head of Flight Operations Chris Caputo said the two aircraft made 26 test flights during the week, covering more than 1,358 nautical miles on about $300 worth of electricity, Tampa Bay Business Journal’s Breanne Williams reports.

It was Florida’s first flight under the federal eVTOL Integration Pilot Program. The U.S. Department of Transportation picked the Florida Department of Transportation’s proposal in March as one of eight nationwide, out of more than 30 submitted. FDOT’s project runs in three phases covering passenger transportation, cargo delivery, automation, and medical response. Archer Aviation, Beta, and Electra are also partners on the Florida tests. Beta is on seven of the eight projects nationwide.

Gov. Ron DeSantis was waiting at TPA when the aircraft landed. He quoted Back to the Future: “Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.” He said the aircraft is the closest thing to a flying car available right now, FOX 13’s Matthew McClellan reports.

FDOT Secretary Jared Perdue rejected the comparison to an electric helicopter.

“This is going to provide a new way for people and goods to move around the entire country, but more importantly, the state of Florida,” Perdue said. “It’s going to bring regional air connectivity back to the state of Florida.”

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said Florida “by and far, leads the industry in terms of its competitiveness for welcoming these technologies.” TPA CEO Michael Stephens said the region is “once again helping lead the way as we explore the next great evolution in aviation.”

Greg Bowles, Joby’s Chief Policy Officer, said people take a rideshare for short trips but drive themselves once a trip passes 30 minutes. “Instead of it being an hour and a half in rush hour traffic to get out to the beach side, we’re going to be able to get there in minutes,” Bowles said.

The city of St. Petersburg hosted a watch party at Albert Whitted Park beginning at 8:45 a.m. Mayor Ken Welch said the city was “revisiting that same route in a way [Jannus] could hardly have imagined,” and that the technology “could transform how people and goods move through Tampa Bay and beyond,” I Love the Burg’s Bob Carskadon reports. Ed Montanari, the former City Council member who chairs the city’s Advanced Air Mobility Task Force, said, “The future is now.”

On Jan. 1, 1914, Jannus took off from the downtown St. Petersburg waterfront near the city pier in a Benoist XIV flying boat with a 75-horsepower engine. His passenger was Abram C. Pheil, a former St. Petersburg Mayor who paid $400 at auction for the first ticket. The crossing took 23 minutes, including a stop on the water to adjust the propeller’s drive chain, and ended on the Hillsborough River, where Tampa Mayor Donald B. McKay was waiting. The regular fare was $5. The St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line flew twice a day, six days a week, and carried about 1,200 passengers before its contract ran out at the end of March. Before Jannus, getting between the two cities meant a slow boat across the bay or roughly five hours on a train around it.

In November 2003, St. Petersburg voters rejected a plan to close Albert Whitted and turn half of it into a waterfront park, and voted by nearly three to one to keep it an airport in perpetuity.

DeSantis and Perdue saw eVTOL prototypes at the 2025 Paris Air Show, which DeSantis said moved him from “mildly interested” to “mildly excited.” In April, DeSantis signed HB 1093, which passed both chambers without a no vote. The law lets FDOT pay up to 100% of the cost of a public vertiport when federal money is not available, and up to 80% of the nonfederal share when it is. It took effect July 1.

FDOT is also building SunTrax Air, a test campus in Auburndale off Interstate 4 with two vertiports and what the state calls the nation’s first dedicated aerial test track for advanced air mobility. DeSantis said in August that eVTOL testing there would start by the end of the year. Eve Air Mobility, the Embraer spinoff, signed on to test at SunTrax in July, and AIR, an Israeli eVTOL developer, chose the campus for its U.S. headquarters in August.

Perdue told the Business Journal the first phase of the aerial highway follows the Interstate 4 corridor, with stops planned for St. Petersburg and Clearwater, Tampa, Sarasota, Lakeland, Auburndale, Kissimmee, Orlando, Cocoa and Melbourne, and Daytona Beach. He expects hundreds or thousands of people to fly those routes one day, and said several manufacturers have asked about doing final assembly and testing in Florida. DeSantis has said the aircraft could be operating as early as next year. TPA has written potential vertiport sites into its master plan, St. Petersburg is looking at autonomous aircraft for Albert Whitted, and Sarasota Bradenton International is working with local governments on ordinances.

Joby flies next at Orlando International Airport, where it will land at a new vertiport near Terminal C and the airport’s train station on routes developed over two years of simulation with the FAA, NASA, the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, and Orlando air traffic controllers. The week ends at Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility during the UP.Summit. Florida is the last stop on Joby’s Electric Skies Tour after the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, and Dallas-Fort Worth.

Friday’s flight was a demonstration. Joby says it is in the final stage of FAA type certification. The aircraft that crossed the bay flies on an experimental airworthiness certificate, and N547JX, the airframe Joby is certifying, remained in California, DroneXL’s Haye Kesteloo notes. Joby told investors in August it was still targeting its first passengers in 2026. It has not published a fare or a booking date for Tampa Bay or anywhere else in Florida.

Blade, Joby’s subsidiary, has flown between the New York area and South Florida since 2015 and restarts its BLADEone jet service to Miami and Palm Beach in November with Aero.

Joby reports third-quarter earnings on Wednesday.

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Ed. note: This story was drafted with assistance from AI. Editorial judgment, sourcing, and final review were performed by Peter Schorsch and the Florida Politics editorial team.