Baby Boomers finally get the flying car we were promised. It’s called The Jetson, and sells for less than $100,000, but the first batch instantly sold out. Light aircraft pilot Bill Whittle looks at the fun, safety and practicality of this badass hovercraft.
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Video below hosted at Rumble.
23 replies on “Finally! A Flying Car Worthy of the Name ‘The Jetson’…and for Less than $100,000!”
I have this same dream Scott mentioned. I WANT ONE!!!
Nearly every contract these days asks me if I drive 4-wheelers. If so, I’m not worth the financial risk. A “Jetson?”
Guess I’m signing no new contracts.
To get the real sense of speed & power. Try 350Kt @ 100’AGL & do that for hrs. Watch out for towers & birds.
wow
I fear that the main thing that will happen when these get out is that people will discover just how ubiquitous power and telephone lines are.
You must see the video of the jetson1 in a forest. It is fantastic.
Looks like it should be called “The Copterson”.
I expected the music to be a Flight of the Valkyries.
Say ‘chip shortage hit’ a few times , I thought Steve dropped an S bomb.
it’s Thunderbird 7!
I watched a video that compares the Jetson with the Toyota personal drone-craft. One thing that stood out for me was the flight time. For a 180 lb pilot, the Jetson has a 20 minute flight time! Up the pilot weight to 220, that drops to 5 MINUTES! That’s a major drawback! I weigh 280: a Jetson would whimper and cry and not even lift for me!
(I know, lose weight. Shutup)
I wonder how those numbers would change with a gasoline engine and 8 gal of high-octane hooked up to a generator? Anyone? Anyone?
Beuller?
40 years ago, before wife and kids, I used to launch off 1000 foot canyons with a delta wing hang glider harnessed to my body and would gleefully jump off the cliff. A ton of fun, until the day I jumped off, and immediately stalled, sending me falling into the treetops to what should have been a nasty impact, impalement and most likely death. Luckily my hang gliding instructor radioed me to “um, Tim…pull on some air speed would you please?” I did, cleared the redwood tree tops, and the power lines, landed on the beach, packed up the glider and immediately put it up for sale. Never flew again. My instructor later told me, “in hang gliding, never fly any higher than you wish to fall”.
Seeing the Jetsoon fly 10-20 feet slowly across the landscape, Bill’s right. In the rare case of a loss of power, it’d be a nasty impact for sure, but most likely survivable. I’m hoping for the day where there are enough Jetsons out there that you can, like a zip car, you can just fire up the app and rent one at a local park or BLM land.
Bill, just a helpful heads up about friendly appearing desert terrain.
I don’t know how much time you’ve spent out in that desert you’re referring to but that was my favorite getaway when I lived in LA. I spent a lot of time out there mostly just to get away from the toxicity of the social aspects of Los Angeles. I trained out there in the military (@ 29 Stumps) and being a country boy I was much more comfortable in the desert than in the city.
Terrain that appears relatively smooth and friendly to aircraft landing gear may not be as amenable as you might think.
Many times I’ve sunk into that stuff because it’s so loose and soft. It can be dry as a bone and look like a sandy parking lot but hiding a crust of thin material over a sump of mud depending on when the last rain occurred. It can be dry as a bone all the way down and still suck tires into it. It looks like desert hardpan but it may not be and it’s almost impossible to tell without actually physically examining it.
When I went out there to get out of LA I was in a 4WD vehicle so the performance on that surface may not be identical to aircraft landing gear. I don’t know what the dynamics of a light or microlight aircraft attempting to land on that sort of surface might be.
So here’s a serious tip for you when you’re over that kind of surface. Look for tire tracks. They last forever out there on the desert and if you don’t see any at all, there’s a reason for that.
If you have to put down try to follow a set of tire tracks, or at least cross a set of them.
If that’s not an option try to land as near the edge of those “smooth” areas as you can. The loose stuff will be much thinner there.
If the only place you see any tire tracks is around those edges, that’s also a clue and don’t ignore places where it’s obvious someone got stuck in a ground vehicle and had to dig themselves out.
I once got stuck because of a 1 inch high rill. I had stopped and didn’t hit it at speed, when my front tires gently rolled up against it that was just enough resistance to spin and dig in my rear wheels. I immediately switched to 4 wheel drive and the front tires just dug in too. Because it was so loose and soft that the front wheels couldn’t overcome the drag of the rear wheels. It took two hours of hard work to get a lighter weight 4WD unstuck and I barely made it to solid ground anyway.
If you try to set your aircraft down on something like that the wheels will probably dig in and pitch pole your plane. Even if you get down and stopped safely, you might not get back up in the air again.
So heads up. The desert is always trying to kill you, don’t let it. (These were some of the first words out of the mouth of my Desert Warfare instructor, btw.)
Respect that desert and be prepared to counter any tricks it tosses your way.
Aw Bill, why you gotta discriminate against flying suicide machines and slag on them by insisting on survivablity? That’s very intolerant of you.
Clearly you did not get the memo on Leftist social and political suicide rides in a super-express basket straight to hell. Suicide in all forms is the new cancel culture, and here you are discriminating against aerial immolation. You should be ashamed of yourself.
{Sarcasm toggle switch set back to “OFF” ;)}
Bold Prediction: There will be a Jetson Racing League in 2022!
Will it be in the next Bond film, or the next Jacka$$ movie?
Sorry, the Jetson represents the 1% white patriarchy, and is not intersectional enough to make it into the next “Bond” film.
Fast and Furious it is!
purchased by a CCP related billionaire… no doubt…
A+ for Gumball Rally reference, Bill!
It’s an improvement but the licensing costs are prohibitive.
I don’t want a 688 boat. I want an Oliver Hazzard Perry when the Taiwanese are done w/ theirs.
Rick Wilson and the rest of the gang at the North American Man Boy Lincoln Project also want a Jetson for Christmas, only it’s Elroy
I’m assuming that Scott gets credit for this, but whoever did it, that was some nice editing at the end of the show segueing the Jetsons’ theme into the RA closing credits music