The Jetson ONE Human Carrying Drone: A New Era of Personal Aircraft

A company called Jetson made a human carrying drone called the Jetson ONE that classifies as an ultralight aircraft. Why is this so special though?

Ultralight aircrafts have the least regulations out of any type of aircraft in the United States, even small drones.

This is the revolutionizing the drone and personal aircraft industry for many different reasons, allowing the possibility of flight from almost anywhere in the world.

Here’s why the Jetson ONE drone is the most exciting innovation in the drone industry of 2022, the sports car of the air.

How the Jetson ONE is Revolutionizing the Industry

The Jetson ONE combines all the great features of a drone with the features people love about ultralight aircraft.

Since ultralights can fly around with almost no regulations, the Jetson ONE is regulated even less than a normal DJI camera drone and is the single most unregulated aircraft type in the United States.

A pilot’s license, experience, certificates, registration, or special markings aren’t needed for the Jetson ONE human drone. Anybody can fly it!

Having a drone ultralight allows the freedom of flight from almost anywhere in the world, since you don’t need a runway and can take off from your own driveway or patio.

The Jetson ONE drone is so easy to fly that anyone can master it in about 5 minutes, yet another step at making flight accessible for everyone.

Jetson ONE Specifications

What makes the Jetson ONE drone so special isn’t just it’s ultralight status, it’s what the drone can do.

Speeds of over 60 miles per hour make this drone blazing fast, perfect for adrenaline junkies!

This human drone has a flight time of 20-25 minutes depending on the weight of the pilot. It isn’t meant for long trips, but for enjoying the absolute freedom of flight. Thankfully, it comes with a fast charging time of about an hour.

When you combine the speed of 60mph with its 20 minute flight time, the Jetson ONE has a respectable range of 20 miles. You’re not going to be able to fly to Grandma’s house for Thanksgiving, but you can definitely fly into town and back!

The arms can fold in to make the drone just three feet wide, small enough to easily put in a garage stall, shed, or even in the back of a pickup truck.

There are many more great features like the safety system, flight controls, so stay tuned!

Super Safety Features for Flying

Since a drone doesn’t have wings to glide on, or a helicopter rotor to slow its fall, the safety system is important.

Mechanical Failure

The most obvious safety risk is falling out of the sky. To prevent this, Jetson used 8 motors on the drone. Even if one of them fail, the Jetson ONE can still fly to safety.

Worst case scenario, the Jetson ONE features a rapid-deployment ballistic parachute to safely drift to the ground.

To prevent a drone failure in the first place, a triple-redundant flight computer is used. Even if one fails, there’s still two backups.

Human Mistakes

As any car driver knows, most car crashes don’t happen from the car itself failing, but the driver messing up.

The Jetson ONE has the same type of Lidar sensors as the new iPhones have, to track terrain. These LiDar sensors sensors also give it obstacle avoidance.

If the pilot gets stressed out, there’s a hands free hover feature along with other emergency functions, so the pilot can simply take their hands off, and think of their next move from a safe hover.

In the unlikely scenario of a crash, there is a robust race car-inspired safety cell to keep the pilot secure.

Propeller Guards

The Jetson ONE can be outfitted with propeller guards.

Propeller guards help provide protection against laceration. If you fell on the Jetson ONE when the propellers were spinning, it’s a lot better to fall onto an aluminum or carbon fiber bar than a propeller spinning at thousands of RPMs.

The propeller guards also keep the propellers from hitting something. If you’re flying through the woods with the Jetson ONE, they could keep branches from being hit and causing a crash.

Why the “Ultralight Aircraft” Status is so Important for the Jetson ONE

The Jetson ONE meets all of the ultralight aircraft requirements. It weighs 190 pounds, has one seat, and it’s limited to 63 miles per hour. It’s main purpose is recreational, to be flown for fun!

Ultralight aircraft present the best way to truly experience the freedom of flight, because of the few regulations and requirements.

Ultralight Regulations

There’s only two regulations other than the requirements to be called an ultralight. The Jetson ONE can’t be flown at night, and it can’t be flown over any “congested area of any city, town . . . or over any open air assembly of persons” (Part 103 Ultralight Rules).

Even though it would be fun to fly into work, unless your work is in a rural area, it wouldn’t be legal.

Ultralight Freedoms

Ultralight pilots don’t need to take any tests, receive any training, or pass any medical exams. This means that anybody can legally fly the Jetson ONE.

This is exactly what Jetson was intending, and even is stated in their mission to “make the skies available for everyone with our safe personal electric aerial vehicle.”

For an ultralight plane, having no knowledge requirement to fly can be dangerous, but for the Jetson ONE ultralight drone, it’s really easy to fly, takes five minutes to learn how, and has advanced safety features to let anybody fly.

There is no registration or certifications required for ultralight aircraft either, which means more time spent flying and less filling out legal forms!

Jetson ONE Design

The Jetson ONE is a very futuristic aircraft, with carbon fiber arms, black aluminum frame, and a white plated body.

The carbon fiber arms can fold in to make the drone much more transportable, but are still very strong when opened since carbon fiber is an incredibly strong and light material.

Before the consumer friendly version of the Jetson ONE was being produced, there was a lot of testing, designing, and multiple proof-of concept designs.

These designs were to make sure the idea of a human drone would actually work before they started on the features such as the safety system, and design. It’s pretty cool to see what the first designs looked like!

Noise Level of Jetson ONE

Being an avid drone pilot myself, I was surprised to hear how quiet the Jetson ONE drone actually was.

This youtube video shows the drone flying past, and even directly overhead the noise level doesn’t sound louder than a lawn mower.

It also has a very cool star-wars sound!

Because of the noise level, it would definitely be heard when in flight, but wouldn’t be very disturbing to people on the ground.

How High can the Jetson ONE Fly?

Jetson said that their drone could fly to 1,500 meters above the ground, but there’s a couple other limitations to how high the Jetson ONE can fly.

First, it’s only legal to fly an ultralight aircraft in Class G airspace, which is up to 1200 feet. That’s probably as high as you’d ever want to go anyways, but if you really want to you can get authorization to go higher.

Here’s a picture from a drone at exactly 400 feet. It’s super high, and the Jetson ONE can legally go three times higher!

Another thing to consider is the battery life of the Jetson ONE. When flying, it’s important to make sure that your aircraft has enough battery to land safely.

Cost of the Jetson ONE

The Jetson ONE costs $92,000 in total.

A down payment of #$22,000 is required to start the process, and then a final payment of $70,000 when the Jetson ONE is ready for delivery.

This seems really expensive! However, in the world of drone aircraft it’s actually an amazing price.

The EHang 184 drone isn’t even available for sale and doesn’t have half the amazing features as the Jetson.

However, it has similar specs in terms of flight time and weight, and costs over three times the price at $300,000.

Lowering the cost by 300% for a manned drone is truly a remarkable feat by Jetson

Who is this Drone For?

The Jetson ONE is similar to sports car. It looks super cool, goes super fast, lets anybody fly, and sounds amazing!

It’s also very similar to buying a sports car. Your average family of four probably isn’t going to purchase the Jetson ONE. Even though it’s a very well priced human-carrying drone,$92,000 is no small sum.

Even with a price tag of $92,000, the world is realizing how incredible this drone really is, and Jetson is completely sold out for 2022, and only has three drones left out of over a hundred for 2023.

Final Thoughts

As a drone pilot and flight enthusiast, I’m super excited to see more about the Jetson ONE, and it’s my dream to be able to fly it someday.

The company’s goal of making the skies available to everyone is a big feat, but they’ve made a phenomenal first step.

We’d like to thank Jetson for letting us use their photos to make this article better!

To see more information on the Jetson ONE or if you want to buy it, here’s their website. You can also watch the drone in the air flying from their youtube channel, and see cool pictures on their Instagram, Tiktok, and Facebook!

Comment with any questions, and let us know what excites you the most about the Jetson ONE!