After witnessing multiple videos of the Jetson One flying over golf courses, deserts, and woodlands, we finally got to see it in person in Southern California. At first glance, the Jetson One appears to be the offspring of a drone and a Formula One automobile.
There are two joysticks in the cockpit: one moves the vehicle up and down, and the other controls forward, back, left, right, and yaw. Tomasz Patan, Jetson's co-founder and head of innovation, claims that with the help of the flying computer, anyone can learn to fly it in "minutes."
It's all electric, with the battery hidden beneath the pilot's carbon fiber and Kevlar bucket seat. The Jetson One has enough motors to keep it flying even if one of them fails. An autonomous landing capability is powered by GPS on top and lidar on the bottom, and a ballistic parachute in the back, according to Patan, may "save you in the worst case scenario from 20 meters."
The eight propellers are distributed over four arms that fold up for convenient storage and transportation.
The Jetson One was built to meet the FAA's ultralight vehicle regulations, which meant it could be flown without a pilot's license in the United States. The Jetson One's main objective, with a flying period of 20 minutes, is to have fun and get a taste of what it's like to fly.
The Jetson One is for sale for $98,000 with a $8,000 deposit. The vehicles are still in the testing phase, but senior adviser Rikard Steiber says the company has "hundreds of preorders" and intends to have them flying in the US in less than a year.
Check out the video in this post to see the Jetson One in action.
First published at 5:00 a.m. on April 23, 2023. PT
