Electric Jet Aircraft EJ-1S

EJ-1S
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. 

The reason for making an all-electric jetpack is that the current jetpacks which use gas-turbine engines require a physically trained sports-like person, the pilot needs to have flight training and the cost is typically expensive. As of 2018 and 2019, reported costs for gas-turbine jetpacks range from around $300,000.00 USD to $440,000.00 USD and possibly more. Electric Jet Aircraft’s goal is to make an eco-friendly all-electric, safe, reliable, easy to fly and low cost personal jetpack. The electric jetpack might possibly have a sales price of $39,995.00 USD, as of August 2019.

His first jetpack model effort was the EJ-1B (“B” for bi-copter) eVTOL and 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 of the EJ-1B has evolved into a seated personal aircraft vehicle called the VertiCycle or ducted quad-copter, and it uses the same propulsion system as the EJ-1B jetpack.

The latest EJ-1 model is the EJ-1S eVTOL jetpack which has 16 small electric turbines or cluster turbines. This is Electric Jet Aircraft’s first eVTOL which is based on a modular design. Because the turbines are building blocks (similar the concept of lego blocks), it makes it possible to add four (4) more electric turbines, at one time, if desired.

In addition, Electric Jet Aircraft is currently selling the cluster turbines to any person who wants to make their own jetpack and add these to any eVTOL aircraft projects such as powering a hang-glider, paraglider, ultralights, go-karts, bicycles, or even surfboards and kayaks. The jet pods as of August 2019 are priced at $9,999.00 USD each. These engines can also be sold separately.

The first flight of the EJ-1S was on May 29, 2019 and was a manned tethered indoors flight at their facility at Anderson, Indiana, USA. Electric Jet Aircraft is fairly certain they have invented the world’s first all-electric jetpack and at the same time, have created the smallest personal eVTOL aircraft. Their plan is to sell the EJ-1S jetpack for personal use.

The next jetpack on the board is the EJ-1H (“H” for hex) which will have a controller for safety and to be able to program your take-off point and destination and the passenger can then leave the rest to the aircraft. Due to more controllers, flight testing will be much easier. The EJ-1H jetpack timeline includes testing the components, testing modules, building a full scale prototype and testing the validity of its flight ability. Once testing is complete and successful, it will then be made easy for anyone to fly it through programmable departure and destination points. The electric jetpack will require no additional infrastructure or just a small amount of infrastructure for it to work.

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.

EJ-1S specifications:

• Engine/Turbine type: Electric
• Energy type: Batteries
• Engine count: 16
• JetPod count: 4 (Jetpods are four-engines in a pod. Or also called cluster turbines. Or Electric Ducted Fan (EDF)-Jet Cluster.)
• Thrust: 320 lbs (145 kg)
• Speed: 0-45+ mph (72+ km/h)
• Maximum flight time: Several minutes
• Maximum altitude: Several feet off the ground
• Directional control: Manual/Weight-shift inputs
• Weight Frame/Engines: 58 lbs. (26 kg) [without batteries]
• Battery Weight: 32-52 lbs. (14.5-23.5 kg)
• Weight of entire jetpack: 90-100 lbs (40.8-45 kg)
• Dimensions: 42 depth X 52 width x 56 height inches (106D X 132W X 142H cm)
• Maximum weight of pilot: 200 lbs (90.7 kg)
• Price: $39,995.00 USD.

Resources:

• Electric Jet Aircraft website
• Electric Jet Aircraft Twitter
• Article: From Lightning Weapons to Flying Cars, Wired, Nov. 27, 2007
• Article: Electric Jet Aircraft to Display "Wearable Jetpack" at Oshkosh, Aviation Pros, Jul. 19, 2019
• Article: Buck Rogers Runs on Batteries, Experimental Aircraft Association Inc., Jul. 27, 2019
• Article: Oshkosh e-AirVenture, Vertiflite, Sep/Oct 2019