Jetoptera

What does it take to end the age of the spinning rotor?

For our founder and CEO, Dr. Andrei T. Evulet, it started with a childhood dream to build airplanes and a garage in Ohio, where he put years of aerospace engineering experience, including leading technology integration on GE's GE9X turbofan engine, to the test.

That idea became a company in 2015, after an earthquake leveled Kathmandu and left people stranded beyond the reach of rescue aircraft. Andrei and his co-founders Denis Dancanet and Simina Farcasiu were inspired to build a fundamentally different way to fly to serve last mile disaster relief.

What resulted is the Fluidic Propulsive System® (FPS®), which replaces spinning blades with augmented air jets, eliminating the external rotor, the propeller, and the noise and hazards that come with them.

Here's how far that idea has come:
✈️ Pre-orders open for 5 types of FPS-powered aircraft, first commercialization targeting 2027: preorders.jetoptera.com
⚙️ 189+ granted patents
💰 $22M invested in R&D, $6.1M+ in revenue to date
🛡️ Seven U.S. military contracts, backed by SOCOM and AFSOC sponsorship
🚀 2,900+ investors backing us

And now, you can be part of our story by investing through Wefunder. Learn more and invest today: wefunder.com/jetoptera

As we move closer to commercializing the J-110 and J-2000, we wanted customers to have a concrete way to estimate range, based on their own specific needs. So we built a Range Calculator. With it, you can:
Set your departure point.
Set your payload.
Adjust cruise speed, wind, altitude, and reserve time to match your mission.
Visualize on a map how far you can fly under your defined settings and conditions.

You can read the full description and try it out yourself at: https://wefunder.com/jetoptera/feed/388074-new-range-calculator-app-visualize-how-far-our-aircraft-can-fly

Exciting news: last week, we were featured as a top ‘most raised’ campaign in both Wefunder’s and Kingscrowd’s weekly leaderboard! We are now also ranked as the #9 most raised campaign based on overall raise volume across all active campaigns nationwide according to Kingscrowd, the top independent analytics firm covering online private markets! 🎉

Momentum in our round is being driven by:
💸 1,065+ investors, many investing 2 or more times
🆕 Three new aircraft announced this round: the J-110, J-600 AG, and J-900 AG
🛩 A growing pre-order waitlist spanning five aircraft across cargo, agriculture, and passenger use
⚙️ Thrusters redesigned to cost 94% less and weigh 82% less than our previous ceramic versions
📋 FAA rule changes clearing our path to market, including Part 108 and MOSAIC
💨 Our Fluidic Propulsive System® (FPS®), now protected by 189 granted patents worldwide

This round is almost fully funded. Back the future of flight at wefunder.com/jetoptera

Introducing the J-900 AG, our highest-capacity agricultural aircraft 🌱

Built on the same adaptive Fluidic Propulsive System® (FPS®) that powers the rest of our J-Series, the J-900 AG carries nearly double the J-600 AG's capacity.

The J-900 AG takes off with a short ground roll, under 100 feet, then lands vertically once the hopper is empty. Mounting the FPS thrusters on top of the wing lets their augmented jet exhaust flow directly over the wing and flaps, adding extra lift and thrust exactly when a heavy, fully loaded aircraft needs it most.

J-900 AG specs:
🌾 85-gallon hopper, 700 lb maximum payload (vs. 50 gallons and 400 lb on the J-600 AG)
🌱 Up to 30 acres per load in under 10 minutes, or about 23 football fields (vs. 16 acres in under five minutes on the J-600 AG)
⚡ 100 mph working speed, comparable to a manned ag plane
🛫 Takeoff roll under 100 feet fully loaded, vertical landing once empty
🔊 ~40 dBa quieter than a bladed system of equivalent power

This capability complements the J-600 AG, giving operators a choice based on what their fields require, and is well-suited for the $3B agricultural drone market which is projected to grow to $10B by 2030.

Pre-order your aircraft now: tally.so/r/7Rgv0Z

We just reached 1,000+ investors in this round on Wefunder!

Thank you to everyone who has believed in us and shares our vision for the future of bladeless flight.

That future runs on the Fluidic Propulsive System®, the technology at the core of every aircraft we build:

🚁 The J-110 flies cargo and delivery routes without spinning rotors, quiet enough for areas where noise limits keep rotorcraft out.
🌾 The J-600 AG covers up to 16 acres per load in under five minutes, faster than the manned spray planes farmers use today.
🛫 The J-2000 and J-4000 will carry people up to 400 miles per flight, faster than a comparable helicopter.

Here's what some of our investors have told us recently:

"Investing again in this follow-up round. Continued to be impressed with the ex*****on of the team, the IP moat, and the market potential." — Matthew H., repeat investor

"Novel propulsion technology with opportunities for diverse vehicle shape. Other EVTOLs being developed look bulky and complex in comparison." — Sankarananda Basak, thermal engineer at Intel

"It will revolutionize air transport as we know it and eventually make personal air travel affordable for millions." — Richard H. Jones, retired U.S. Foreign Service Officer

If you believe in the future of bladeless flight, now is the time to invest: wefunder.com/jetoptera

Check out our new thruster redesign!

We recently redesigned the thrusters for our aircraft. When we started Project Pegasus for the DARPA Lift Challenge, the 55-pound aircraft limit forced us to rethink the thruster from the ground up.

We first looked at ceramics and ultimately landed on stainless steel: thrusters formed by stamping very thin sheet metal into shape and welding it together with robotic laser welders, the same process an automotive supplier uses to make hardware for VW and BMW.

The result:
🔧 94% cheaper
⚖️ 82% lighter
📉 Under 1 kg (2 lbs) per unit but producing up to 33.5 kgf (75 lbf)

Every aircraft in our unmanned J-Series shares the similar Fluidic Propulsive System® (FPS®) architecture, so the savings carry across the whole lineup, adding payload and range for delivery, air taxi, and rescue missions alike.

Our investment round is filling fast with 1,000+ investors. Invest or increase your investment: wefunder.com/jetoptera

85% sold out!

We’ve had a defining summer at Jetoptera. Here are some of the highlights:

🛩️ Designed two new aircraft: the J-110 cargo drone and the J-600 AG agricultural drone
✅ Opened pre-orders for our J-Series aircraft
🛫Secured a lease to fly in Dronetown, USA (Pendleton, Oregon)
⚙️ Obtained our 189th patent, with 100+ pending

And we’ve gained hundreds of new investors, with 995+ investors backing us in this round alone! Thank you to everyone who have supported us so far. Our investment round is now nearly sold out.

If you believe in the future of bladeless flight, now is the time to invest or increase your investment: wefunder.com/jetoptera

As interest in pre-ordering our aircraft builds, we wanted to highlight the first two passenger aircraft in our J-Series: the J-2000 and J-4000.

Both aircraft cover up to 400 miles per flight and are built for the regional trips that are impractical for a helicopter. Think a weekend flight from DC to the Hamptons or an air taxi route between central LA and downtown San Francisco.

They also both fly on our Fluidic Propulsive System®️ (FPS®️), which already powers our J-110 and J-600 AG drones. The lack of blades and moving parts gives these aircraft several advantages:

- Quieter than helicopters
- Simpler mechanics
- Increased take off and landing zone possibilities

Our J-Series passenger craft win on speed as well. The aircraft cruise at 150 knots and top out at 200. They also use a box-wing airframe which enables a lighter, stronger airframe that flies farther on the same amount of fuel, without needing the long wingspan of a typical small aircraft.

Concerning certification, the FAA's MOSAIC rule recently opened a path that we believe would let the J-2000 aircraft fly under a sport pilot certificate, a lighter certification track than a traditional aircraft requires.

We're targeting first delivery of the J-2000 in 2028 and the J-4000 in 2029. Pre-order either aircraft at no cost: tally.so/r/7Rgv0Z

Yesterday we hosted an investor webinar with a great turnout and even better questions. We’re so grateful for the support of our community!

We covered a lot of different topics during the webinar, including:

🔧 Thruster redesign that cut cost by 94% and weight by 82%
⚡ New flight controls, which respond ten times faster than a propeller or rotor
🌾 The J-600 AG, plus the short take-off and landing derivative that uses a runway shorter than a basketball court
📋 How FAA Mosaic and Part 108 benefit our aircraft certification readiness

The Q&A is worth the listen on its own. We addressed how our propulsion compares to the jet engines on commercial airliners, where we sit next to other VTOL companies, and how our aircraft handle wind and rain.

Watch the full recording now: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/2AoKpCLdDY0oq_FuhfdUar8eJsiSDv5SaYQ1wYJXOBtJTcwemhjgbW2kUHm0UIDy.0JQO7HqwnT_b-kNE