Flying cars are fine -- but why use a car when you can have a motorcycle instead? YC-backed startup JetPack Aviation wants to answer that question with the world's first flying motorcycle, a personal aircraft dubbed "The Speeder," a name that Star Wars fans will surely appreciate. Now, JetPack has raised a seed round of $2 million from investors indulging Draper Associates, Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn, YC, Cathexis Ventures and a group of angels that it says will fund the development of the Speeder's first functional prototype.
Back in March, JetPack revealed its plans for the Speeder, which it says will provide a fully stabilized ride that's either pilot-controlled or fully autonomous. It can take off and land vertically, and reach top speeds of potentially over 400 MPH. There are no exposed rotors systems, which make it a lot safer and easier to operate than a lot of other VTOL designs and helicopters, and the company says it can also be refueled in less than 5 minutes, which is a dramatically shorter turnaround time for powering up versus an electric vehicle.
This isn't JetPack's first aerial rodeo: The company, led by CEO and founder David Mayman, has already created an actual jet pack. Mayman himself has demonstrated the personal aerial jet pack numerous times, and it has been certified by the FAA, plus it landed a CARADA agreement with the U.S. Navy Special Forces for use in short-distance troop transportation. The jet pack also boasts a lot of features that sound, on paper, like science fiction: Over 100 mph top seed, and suitcase-sized portability, for instance.
That track record is why when Mayman tells me this $2 million round "should fully fund the first full-scale flying prototype, including all modeling designs and build," I tend to believe him more than I would just about anyone else in the world making a similar claim.
Part of the reason the Speeder is more viable near-term than other VTOL designs is that it will rely on turbine propulsion, rather than battery-based flight systems. This is because, in Mayman's opinion, "current battery energy density is just too low for most electrically powered VTOLs to be truly practical," and that timelines optimistically for that to change are in the five to 10-year range. The Speeder, by comparison, should feasibly be able to provide quick cargo transportation for emergency services and military (its first planned uses before moving on to the consumer market) in a much shorter period.
