Unnamed SE Asian Customer To Send Pilots, Maintainers to California
JetPack Aviation, the developer of the JB12 “personal VTOL aircraft“, has followed the $800,000 sale of two jet packs to a south-east Asian military customer with the announcement of a training package.
Two pilots and two maintainers will travel to the company’s headquarters, in Ventura, CA, this summer to receive training on the system, using the aircraft procured. The two-week course will follow a syllabus approved by the FAA, and developed by the company and the US Navy.
The pilot trainees are experienced military personnel but have no previous flying experience. Flight training will begin with a minimum of 50 tethered flights before off-tether advanced training begins. Once off-tether, the training will involve “advanced, mission-specific maneuvers“, the company stated, “including operating in tightly confined spaces and landing on moving targets“. The company says the customer is expected to use the jet packs “to support complicated special missions“.
“The contracted training confirms the serious intent of our customer to make full use of the JB12’s maneuverability, speed, and ease of deployment in active situations where no other type of aircraft can accomplish the mission,” explained David Mayman, JPA’s CEO. “We designed the JetPacks to be practical, easy to operate and reliable. Once the training is completed our customer will be adding a high performance, extremely versatile, incredibly portable, personal aerial vehicle to its fleet, which can be deployed to support multiple mission types. This is precisely what we envisioned the JetPacks would be used for.”
Future training may involve the customer building their own facilities to provide initial and ongoing currency training. The company is working on a virtual-reality simulation system, and has developed a remote-control protocol that enables an instructor to take over control of the throttle during training. An automatic yaw control management system is also under development.
