Jetson founder pushes the boundaries of “freestyle” eVTOL agility

Jetson founder Tomasz Patan seems to have a pretty good handle on the Jetson One eVTOL’s flight control system… Watch as he twists the controls around to show how sharply – and confidently – this thing can handle tight turns in flight.

When multicopter drones came onto the market, they were revolutionary small devices for several reasons, one of which was their highly automated fly-by-wire control systems. No human could manually control the motor speeds of more than four rotors at the same time, but a sensor-equipped flight control system could – so drones like the DJI Phantom were able to take off and land automatically, maintain altitude when necessary, and balance themselves against gusts of wind to hover in place while quickly responding to a pilot’s commands.

This is part of the promise of eVTOL aircraft – some of them, like the Jetson One, are best described as large multicopter drones that a human can sit inside.

However, most of the flight videos we’ve seen are… well, not particularly exciting, aside from the sheer geeky thrill of seeing a new style of private aircraft emerging from the Wright Brothers’ era. People seem to be pretty reluctant to use the controls, making things a little too safe to be fun to watch.

That’s no surprise, mind you – imagine sitting in the cockpit of one of these things, the whirling rotors screaming around you, just high enough off the ground that you could actually hurt yourself if you fell… Yeah , I’d be pretty damn snotty on the stick too.

That’s what makes Jetson’s latest video so remarkable. Apparently Patan has logged a few hours of flying the Jetson One to the point where he is comfortable enough to actually throw it around. Check out the video below; Some of the turns here look like he’s flicking the stick from side to side at full force, with the flight control system doing a remarkable job of maintaining a stable – but very low – altitude.

It’s one of the most dynamic flights we’ve ever seen from an eVTOL with a human on board, and one that comes closest to answering the question that probably launched the eVTOL sector: Hey, how about it? to drive around? in a racing drone?

The company claims that the perfectly named Jetson One is “the first affordable eVTOL on the market,” and there’s probably some merit to that. This bold 115 kg machine can fly for about 20 minutes on a single battery charge, lifting pilots weighing up to 95 kg (210 lb) to altitudes “above 1,500 feet” (457 m) and reaching a limited speed of 102 km /h (63 mph) in level flight.

Among other things, it uses LiDAR-based terrain tracking to know where the ground, trees and other adverse obstacles are, and the flight control system makes appropriate decisions to ensure pilots’ safety.

As for “affordable…” the full price is now $128,000 per unit, excluding taxes, so you can make your own decision on that. And as for “on the market,” Jetson’s entire 2024 and 2025 production runs are already sold out, so anyone wanting to get in on one of these things and experience it for themselves will have quite a long wait.

But it’s certainly remarkable to see how confident Patan has become with the aircraft and how aggressively it can obviously be flown. It’s definitely starting to go beyond the “zero gravity dune buggy” impression we had when we first saw it in flight. Very impressive!

Source: Jetson