Beta\u2019s 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\u2019s Breanne Williams reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n It was Florida\u2019s first flight under the federal eVTOL Integration Pilot Program. The U.S. Department of Transportation picked the Florida Department of Transportation\u2019s proposal<\/a> in March as one of eight nationwide, out of more than 30 submitted. FDOT\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Gov. Ron DeSantis was waiting at TPA when the aircraft landed. He quoted Back to the Future: \u201cRoads? Where we\u2019re going, we don\u2019t need roads.\u201d He said the aircraft is the closest thing to a flying car available right now, FOX 13\u2019s Matthew McClellan reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n FDOT Secretary Jared Perdue rejected the comparison to an electric helicopter. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is going to provide a new way for people and goods to move around the entire country, but more importantly, the state of Florida,\u201d Perdue said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to bring regional air connectivity back to the state of Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said Florida \u201cby and far, leads the industry in terms of its competitiveness for welcoming these technologies.\u201d TPA CEO Michael Stephens said the region is \u201conce again helping lead the way as we explore the next great evolution in aviation.\u201d<\/p>\n Greg Bowles, Joby\u2019s Chief Policy Officer, said people take a rideshare for short trips but drive themselves once a trip passes 30 minutes. \u201cInstead of it being an hour and a half in rush hour traffic to get out to the beach side, we\u2019re going to be able to get there in minutes,\u201d Bowles said.<\/p>\n 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 \u201crevisiting that same route in a way [Jannus] could hardly have imagined,\u201d and that the technology \u201ccould transform how people and goods move through Tampa Bay and beyond,\u201d I Love the Burg\u2019s Bob Carskadon reports<\/a>. Ed Montanari, the former City Council member who chairs the city\u2019s Advanced Air Mobility Task Force, said, \u201cThe future is now.\u201d<\/p>\n 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<\/a>. The crossing took 23 minutes, including a stop on the water to adjust the propeller\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> to keep it an airport in perpetuity.<\/p>\n DeSantis and Perdue saw eVTOL prototypes at the 2025 Paris Air Show, which DeSantis said moved him from \u201cmildly interested\u201d to \u201cmildly excited.\u201d<\/a> In April, DeSantis signed HB 1093<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n FDOT is also building SunTrax Air<\/a>, a test campus in Auburndale off Interstate 4 with two vertiports and what the state calls the nation\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Joby flies next at Orlando International Airport, where it will land at a new vertiport near Terminal C and the airport\u2019s 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\u2019s Shuttle Landing Facility during the UP.Summit. Florida is the last stop on Joby\u2019s Electric Skies Tour<\/a> after the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, and Dallas-Fort Worth.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1793452568_196_Seann-Frazier-Web-Ad-3-Florida-Politics-Updated.jpg\")
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