The Jetson ONE: Finally, a Way to Avoid Traffic
Image Credit: Jetson.
The Swedish wizards over at Jetson have finally done it. They've built a personal, electric, vertical take-off and landing thingamajig. They call it the ONE, and they claim it's like piloting Anakin Skywalker's pod racer. I call it a potential Darwin Award delivery system, but - I'm an optimist.
Jetson has been tinkering with this contraption for years now, and apparently, it's finally ready for prime time. Or at least, ready for rich folks to scare themselves silly. They've even managed to get it flying hands-free, which is either a testament to their engineering prowess or a sign they've given up on human control altogether. I say it's smarter way to do things.
If you haven't heard of the ONE (and frankly - where have you been hiding?), this little flying buzzsaw boasts eight electric motors, each spinning a dedicated propeller. Eight propellers is a lot. That's eight opportunities for something to go horribly wrong. But Jetson says the ONE can still fly with one motor down, which is reassuring. Sort of.
The whole thing is built around an aluminum space frame - a race-car-inspired safety cell. Because when you're flying, safety is by far the most important bit. Especially when you're hurtling through the air at a blistering 63 miles per hour. That's roughly 101 kilometers per hour for those of you not living in the land of bald eagles and oversized pickup trucks.
Image Credit: Jetson.
Keeping an eye on safety are radar sensors, and there's a ballistic parachute, just in case you decide to reenact a scene from a disaster movie. You control this flying lawnmower with a four-axis joystick. Which, at least in my case, sounds like a recipe for disaster.
And the range? 20 minutes. Twenty whole minutes of air time. That's about enough time to get to the grocery store if you live next door. Or to get to the hospital, if something goes wrong. At full speed, that's about 20 miles of flying, which initially doesn't really sound like a lot. But when you're up there, with those eight propellers buzzing next to your head, every minute probably stretches to infinity. At least there's an auto-land function. Which is good, because I'm pretty sure most of us would struggle to land this thing without turning it into a very expensive lawn dart.
I'm a bit conflicted about the next bit - the price. It's $128,000, and I'm not sure if that's a lot or if that is an actual bargain of the century. I mean, $128,000 is a lot of money for something barely bigger than a motorcycle. But is $128,000 a lot for a personal flying machine? Apparently, a lot of people think it is a bargain, and the ONE is sold out for the next two years. That's great news for Jetsons, not so great for those who wanted to try this thing out pronto.
With the first production unit completed and deliveries starting shortly, we'll be seeing quite a few of these things buzzing around like angry wasps. Let's hope we won't be seeing any of them on the news, crumpled in a field somewhere.
Image Credit: Jetson.
So… The Jetson ONE, hey? A personal flying machine for the rich and the brave. Or the rich and the slightly insane. Whichever it is, the future has just landed in our front yard. Me? I wish I was the younger and richer version of myself; that way, I'd have one already charging in the garage. But in reality, just looking at this thing, I can tell there's no way I'd fit in that seat. Nah. When Jetsons decides to make a grown-up version of it, you know - not for the Nordic slim people - I'll find a way to finance it. Having two kidneys and a complete liver is so overrated.
