The personal eVTOL market expanded last week with the first delivery of a Jetson One to virtual reality pioneer Palmer Luckey. The aircraft, which is about the size of a motorcycle, gets airborne with an array of eight electric motors and rotors and will fly about 20 minutes on a charge. It scoots along at a software-limited 63 mph and will carry a 210-pound pilot up to about 1500 feet. It includes a ballistic parachute as standard equipment. It costs $138,000.
No pilot certificate is required, but new owners go through a familiarization course and Luckey got special consideration as the first customer. “The Jetson ONE unit was delivered to a facility in Carlsbad, California, where Jetson’s Founder and CTO Tomasz Patan and CEO Stephan D’haene assisted in person with the unboxing and pre-flight checks,” Jetson said. They said the young tech guru, an experienced pilot, breezed through the training and was airborne less than an hour later.
How is it that “no pilot certificate is required” to operate this aircraft in the US National Airspace System at altitudes up to 1500 feet?
Should be perfect for wire strikes and airspace conflicts.
Looks like a fun toy. And it’s under 254 lbs, it appears to fit part 103 regs which have no altitude or license requirements. With a 20 minute range , can’t see practical use other than fun. That’s still a lot of bucks for a fun toy, but I’m actually surprised it isn’t more.
What is the minimum altitude for the parachute to be effective?
um… for that price you could buy TWO MosquitoXELs, which is a real factory-built helicopter. And it auto-rotates like a dream, without requiring expensive single-use explosives.
No ADS-B out either I expect… That does it, I’m installing a push bar on the 182!