Electric Jet Aircraft EJ-1B (defunct)

EJ-1B (defunct)
Electric Jet Aircraft
Anderson, Indiana, USA
www.electricjetaircraft.com 

Electric Jet Aircraft was founded by Pete Bitar in June 2018 and his company focus is creating small electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft which are safe and easy to fly and have no emissions. Bitar has been dreaming of making a personal jetpack since 13 years old and has been inventing personal aircraft for years.

Bitar started testing electric components for eVTOL aircraft in 2013 and originally wanted to make an eVTOL aircraft for agricultural applications but Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulatory rules would have been difficult to overcome for the aircraft. He decided instead to make small ultralight Part 103 personal aircraft instead with the first invention to be an all-electric personal jetpack. 

Bitar started the the EJ-1B eVTOL jetpack in February 2018 and was shown at the EAA AirVenture Annual Convention and Fly-In (Experimental Aircraft Association) event in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA, July 2018. The actual purpose of the EJ-1B jetpack was for testing the ducted propulsion modules.

Now defunct, the EJ-1B model was an all-electric jetpack built based on 11 years of development of various gas-powered VTOL designs under its sister company, AirBuoyant, LLC. The EJ-1B (“B” for bi-copter) eVTOL is flown by a person who is standing with two ducted fans secured on the person’s back (like a backpack) and each ducted fan is on the either side of the person. Each ducted fan has one electric motor with a 3-bladed propeller. This aircraft was never flown but was tested on a stationary testbed.

Even though the EJ-1B eVTOL jetpack model is now a defunct aircraft, the ducted fan design has evolved into a seated personal aircraft vehicle called the Verticycle or ducted quad-copter, and therefore, Verticycle uses the same propulsion system as the EJ-1B jetpack. In addition, the EJ-1B eVTOL jetpack has been superseded by the EJ-1S eVTOL jetpack.

The EJ-1B jetpack has a base weight of 31 kg (68 lbs), with a thrust of 178 kg (392 lbs) and it can lift a pilot of up to 131 kg (300 lbs) for 2-14 minutes depending on their weight. It includes two 96vLiPo batteries. Roll is controlled and balanced by a computer, but forward, reverse, and yaw maneuvers are manually controlled. The EJ-1B originally came with a quick-build kit and was priced at $19,995.00. It is no longer for sale.

Electric Jet Aircraft has been in the GoFly Prize competition, Phase I, Phase II and will be in Phase III with its VertiCycle eVTOL aircraft.

Specifications:

• Maximum Thrust: 394 lbs (178.7 kg)
• Maximum Payload: 300 lbs (136.1 kg)
• Average Flight Time: 2 minutes
• Maximum Flight TIme: 14 minutes
• Estimated Top Speed" 39.1 kts (72.4 km/h)
• Noise Level at 50 feet: <70 dB
• Weight: 69 lb (31.3 kg)
• Height: 43 in. (1.09 m)
• Length: 46 in. (1.17 m)
• Width overall: 99 in. (2.51 m)
• Duct Materials: Carbon Fiber
• Propeller Materials: CF over wood core
• Frame Materials: Aluminum and Titanium
• Batteries: 2x 96V LiPo

References:

• Electric Jet Aircraft website
• Electric Jet Aircraft Twitter
• Article: Oshkosh e-AirVenture, Vertiflite, Sep/Oct 2019