Aircraft

Jetson CEO takes his eVTOL on a commute to work

Jetson CEO takes his eVTOL on a commute to work
Jetson co-founder Tomasz Patan flies the Jetson One to work, hitting some impressive speeds on the way
Jetson co-founder Tomasz Patan flies the Jetson One to work, hitting some impressive speeds on the way
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Walk out into your back yard, jump into a next-generation electric VTOL flying machine, lift off and soar your way to the office helipad: that's the dream of personal eVTOL ownership, and Jetson co-founder Tomasz Patan has lived it, in a new video.

Sweden's Jetson One aircraft is pure simplicity: a coaxial octacopter with a seat and a roll cage and enough batteries for 20 minutes of agile, buzzy flight at speeds up to 63 mph (102 km/h). It's got some limited autonomy capability; if you let go of the sticks it'll hover in place, or find somewhere to land if the battery's low, but really it's designed to be flown for fun, with a joystick and a throttle.

The machine itself might not push too many boundaries technologically, but Jetson has done a great job of presenting the experience of eVTOL flight in its videos. And in a new one released today, the company claims it's made "the world first eVTOL commute to work," as Patan straps into the Jetson One, lifts off from his back yard, and flies the thing straight to a landing pad at work.

Now look, there's no point pretending this looks anything like most folks' commute. Patan's home backs onto a broad paddock, perfect for taking off and landing in, with no close neighbors to annoy. From there, he flies straight over a lush forest area, then a small orchard, then he accelerates down a nicely mown valley, picking up what looks like some pretty serious speed, before following some power lines through some more forest and touching down on a concrete pad at work, which basically appears to be another house backing onto the wilderness.

And as to the claim of this being a world first... Well, maybe. eHang released a video of CEO Hu Huazhi flying to work three and a bit years ago, but the palatial building he took off from might not be his home, and you can just about see the takeoff and landing pads in the same follow drone shot, so they're probably not much more than a few hundred meters apart. On the other hand, the eHang aircraft was flying autonomously – but on the other other hand, it was flying over relatively unpopulated areas itself.

Either way, Jetson's run to work is a fun piece of video and worth a watch! Check it out below.

Jetson ONE - World's First EVTOL Commute to Work

Source: Jetson Aero

37 comments
37 comments
anthony88
So around 30 kilometres range? A swap-n-go battery standard might be the thing to develop for this type of vehicle. E-scooter companies in China do it and they're talking about it in Japan for e-motorbikes. Standardisation might help to lower costs and hopefully doesn't lead to a Betamax-VHS-style war.
martinwinlow
(I'm glad he's not *my* neighbour!) I predict he will not be CEO for long if he regularly flies this amazing machine at such completely unnecessarily dangerous low altitudes.
martinwinlow
Further to my last comment, at 2:46 he appears to fly between the ground and overhead cables...
paul314
Now let's see a few thousand of these all competing for the same airspace above some urban chokepoint...
Brian M
Looks like great fun but.....
In other countries he would be getting some serious summons and fines as the aviation authorities are not too keen on fun, especially if its dangerous!

As a pilot he should have least been giving more vertical and horizontal clearance to objects including trees, vegetation and power lines, for his own safety if nothing else.
Unsold
Appealing as this iteration is, I wonder how well the world will tolerate one of these things taking off when you're trying to sleep-in. Does it scare the livestock? Knock fruit off the trees? In scale it's quieter than a helicopter, but at scale do we want to hear squadrons of these aligning on a morning commute? Let's see how quiet they can make it.
RobWoods
After reading about how negative all the comments are on this, it just goes to show that people really don't want flying machines, in spite of what mat be otherwise thought. For this reason there will never be a future with these, and also because of over regulations, fines, etc. Have fun just staying on the ground then!
NDG
Neat little ultralight chopper but 20 minute duration? Battery technology is improving for motorcycles and automobiles so there is hope for little copters like this. As a recreational pilot and amphibious ultralight owner in Canada, I cringed at his low flying which would earn him a hefty citation here for dangerous antics, rule breaking and poor airmanship. Maybe it's different in outlying areas of Sweden...
Glen Hillier
Unless he has a ballistic recovery system, altitude won't help much in a malfunction. Going under the electrical lines scared the bejesus out of me too. This guy is either very brave or just crazy.
darkcook
Very cool looking! I like it. I agree with others, he won't last long flying that low. Any pilot will tell you flying this low is very dangerous. Way too many things to hit. Better to go a little higher and have a small ballistic recovery chute to save your bacon when the inevitable happens.
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