According to JPA, the Speeder has completed the first test flight of its one-third scale prototype called P1. JPA completed five months of testing in May 2021 when the company attained certain benchmarks in the Speeder’s ability to take off, climb, hover, or even do turns.
Billed as a jet-powered, vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft, the Speeder, “will be just like riding a motorcycle, but in the sky!” says JPA.
The Speeder is an engineering feat that required JPA to write its own flight-control software program to monitor and adjust the thrust. The benefit of that work, which took a year and a half, is described as an intuitive system that functions like a typical motorcycle and automatically stabilises the machine in flight. It can take off and land vertically from most surfaces in roughly the space taken up by a car, and it can be programmed to fly autonomously, its developers say.
...