Joby’s Autonomous Caravan Aircraft Completes Coast-to-coast Trip | Aviation International News

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Joby’s Autonomous Caravan Completes Coast-to-coast Trip

On-board safety pilot made no control inputs over 3,199 miles

Joby’s autonomous Cessna Grand Caravan flies past Bodie Island Lighthouse — Joby’s autonomous J208, a modified Cessna Grand Caravan, flies past Bodie Island Lighthouse on North Carolina’s Outer Banks on Sept. 16, 2026. © Joby Aviation

By Hanneke Weitering • Science & Technology Editor

September 21, 2026

Joby Aviation’s autonomy-equipped Cessna Grand Caravan has finished a 3,199-mile trip from California to North Carolina’s Outer Banks without a single control input from the safety pilot on board, the company announced Friday. Joby billed the trip as the first autonomous flight across the U.S., though the single turboprop aircraft covered the distance in stages over eight days, with stops in Arizona, Texas, and South Carolina.

According to Joby, the J208—an experimental modified Cessna 208B Grand Caravan registered N101XW—taxied, took off, navigated, and landed on its own throughout the trip. Remote pilots at Joby’s facilities in California and at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina supervised the flights from as far as 2,323 miles away. Under the company’s supervised autonomy model, a ground-based remote pilot serves as pilot in command, updating flight plans and talking to air traffic control over the aircraft’s standard radios. A safety pilot rode along to monitor the flights.

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Cessna 208 Caravan and 208B Grand Caravan

Joby Aviation

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