Walks on West Cliff

Guiding Principles for Building the Future of Flight

One of the things I love about talking with people who are building the future is hearing how they turn imagination into execution.

I had the pleasure of catching up with Dave Lyons, who joined Joby Aviation after a remarkable career including serving as Tesla’s first Dir. of Eng., where he helped lay the groundwork for Tesla’s powertrain technology. At Joby, Dave and the Joby team are applying that same combination of first-principles thinking and operational discipline to help bring electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft from concept to certified, manufacturable reality.

🚁 Building the Future of Flight

Dave shared, “What Joby and others in the emerging Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) space are attempting is almost beyond the definition of hard.”

Joby isn’t just developing one of the world’s first electric commercial aircraft and the first commercial VTOL, they’re also creating a new kind of airline and business model to support it. It’s an audacious climb that blends aerospace, electrification, and systems engineering in ways few have attempted.

🧭 The Path Up the Mountain

Dave recalled a proverb: “There are many roads to the top of the mountain, but the view from the top is the same. Yet if the road you take leads down a blind alley or becomes too winding, you may never reach the summit.”

At Joby, founder and CEO JoeBen Bevirt has defined two guiding principles that keep the team focused on reaching that summit:

1️⃣ First Principles Physics – Question every assumption, simplify every system, and design from the laws of nature up, not from precedent down.
2️⃣ Vertical Integration – Build and own the critical technologies and manufacturing capabilities that define success.

🛣️ The Road Less Traveled

While some competitors rely on established partners and legacy certification experience, Joby has chosen a more iterative, hands-on route built around a tight design → build → test feedback loop and the systems engineering V-curve. Each iteration closes the gap between theory and flight reality.

“It’s a different kind of discipline,” Dave noted, “but it’s how you learn fast and stay grounded in physics.”

⚠️ Why It Matters

That mindset of staying close to the fundamentals has given Joby resilience and speed. It’s not just about building an air taxi; it’s about creating building blocks for a new generation of zero-emission aircraft and the innovative business models that follows.

As Dave said: “The climb is steep, but the view from the summit will be worth it. As an engineer by DNA, I can’t imagine a better place to be.”

🚵 What does your path up the mountain look like?