JETcopter, a startup company based in Germany, said this week it has completed tests that confirmed the feasibility of its concept to power its seven-seat VTOL design with two 400-HP automotive engines that will drive two counter-rotating fans on top of the carbon-fiber fuselage. The company said it will bring a full-scale mock-up of the design to Aero, Europe’s biggest general aviation trade show, to be held in Friedrichshafen, Germany, in April 2019. JETcopter says the aircraft will sell for $350,000, and a cargo version will be built first.
The JETcopter engines, according to the company’s news release, will be equipped with four vectoring nozzles. The amount of power given to each output point can be manipulated to control vertical hovering and maneuvering. Once the JETcopter is in the air, its fixed nozzles tilt for horizontal flight, and “from there it operates much like a jet,” the company said.
