This 124 MPH Jet-Powered Hover Bike Doesn’t Solve The Worst Problem With Flying Cars, But It Is Wicked Cool

Every year, some startup company sprouts out of the ground, making a huge promise to revolutionize personal transportation with some sort of flying vehicle. The “future of mobility” often gets used in marketing, too. But here’s the thing, none of these flying vehicles can live up to their big promises, and that includes the newest flying thing everyone’s talking about. The Volonaut Airbike promises to be the jet-powered superbike of the future, and while it’s cool, it’s not going to be the future of how you get to work.

I’m a huge fan of all things aviation. I’m the kind of person who gets equally excited about the cheap plane bought from a department store as I do about the Boeing 747. Every year, I spend a whole week in aviation Mecca at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, and despite some road bumps, I’m still working on my private pilot certificate so I can live my flying dreams.

It’s exciting to see that a flurry of startups want to make flying a bit weirder, a bit more fun, and maybe even a bit more accessible. Flying isn’t cheap, but I’m a firm believer that anyone who wants to be a pilot should have access to learning how they can do it. The Volonaut Airbike sounds like the stuff of dreams. It’s a jet-powered motorcycle-shaped thing that zooms at 124 mph and hovers like a helicopter. I just wish its marketing didn’t try writing checks that the jet-moto physically and legally may not be able to cash.

Science Fiction Dreams

The Volonaut Airbike comes from a familiar face in the aviation startup world. It’s the brainchild of Polish aerospace engineer Tomasz Patan, who is known most for creating the Jetson One, a vehicle that I can only describe as a quad-motor flying ATV.

In late 2017, Patan developed a working concept for an electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL). Early marketing labeled the project a flying “flying car” and said that the Jetson aircraft carries the mission of “making everyone a pilot.” Now, I have always been a fan of the Jetson One and am happy that it’s actually in production. But the marketing has always been a bit ambitious.

The Jetson One is an ultralight, which means that it doesn’t require a pilot’s license. But more importantly, this distinction also means that it legally cannot fly over a congested area like a city, cannot fly at night, and cannot fly into controlled airspace without prior authorization. That means calling the control tower before you depart, and don’t be surprised when they tell you no.

Then, once you go through all of those restrictions, you’ll realize that the Jetson One flies no faster than 63 mph, can’t carry more than 200 pounds, can carry only a single occupant, and has an endurance of 20 minutes. Oh yeah, and I forgot about the current price, a whopping $128,000, an increase from its original price of $92,000.

The fact is that the Jetson One does not make “everyone a pilot.” Maybe I’ve spent too much time in the cheap seats, but not everyone is sitting on six figures. In fact, you can get a real pilot certificate for under $20,000 if you’re a decent enough aviator. Then you can fly a real plane. Let’s say you spend $20,000 on flight training. My local flight club charges $170 per hour to rent a Cessna 172, which includes fuel and everything. That’s 638 hours of flying (on top of the hours you flew to get your license) before the Jetson One becomes the better deal. You can also buy an ultralight helicopter for less than the price of a Jetson One.

Again, I like the Jetson One and want to fly one someday, but it’s not really a flying car. You’re not beating traffic in it or going to work. It’s not reinventing transportation. It’s more like a trick flying side-by-side, which is fine! That’s still awesome.

But the problem with flying cars remains unsolved. Every single company that’s building an ultralight eVTOL is making a product that, in my opinion, physically and legally will not live up to the sci-fi dream.

That said, there are companies working on making real flying cars, like the $1 million Klein Vision Aircar above, that you can drive on the road and fly long distances, but you need to temper your expectations there, too. All of the real flying cars will require a pilot certificate, cost ridiculous sums of money, and the flying portion of your commute will involve flying between two airports. The dream of getting stuck in traffic, deploying your wings, and flying away is unrealistic. Think of it as a plane that can drive rather than a car that can fly. That’s why flying cars are more accurately called “roadable aircraft,” but that doesn’t have the same ring as “flying car.”

Sadly, this means that the idea of a flying people’s car will continue to be a pipe dream, just as it has been since the flying car prototypes of the 1940s.

The Volonaut Airbike

So, what’s the latest hot and new flying thing that everyone is talking about? It’s the Volonaut Airbike. After Patan successfully launched the Jetson One, he decided to work on a different project in secret. Now, after years of silence, he has unveiled his latest idea, the Airbike.

Patan’s Volonaut company announced the Airbike on April 30 and continued marketing the machine on May 3 with Star Wars speeder-themed posts (nobody tell the Mouse). Thus far, Volonaut has announced only a couple of specs and a couple of videos that show some neat flying with the real working prototype, but nothing else of use:

Patan says that the video shown here is real. No AI was used, just a neat POV camera and some slick drone operators to catch the action. That’s impressive! It’s wild that this exists, and it actually works.

So, here’s what we know. Volonaut says that the Airbike is jet-powered, can hover, and speeds up to 124 mph. Patan has been working on the concept for years, but the Airbike didn’t make its first flight until 2023. As for the marketing? Well, here we go:

Welcome to the Future of Mobility. Evolving Human flight. Airbike flying motorbike is a breakthrough in personal air mobility. The futuristic single occupant vehicle is a realization of a bold concept often portrayed in science-fiction movies.

No other details have been mentioned yet. However, the imagery displayed in the launch videos suggests that the Airbike could utilize either thrust vectoring nozzles, like a Hawker Siddeley Harrier, or multiple turbines. That would make sense as either would help the machine be as nimble as Volonaut suggests it could be.

Patan also says that the Airbike utilizes carbon fiber, 3D printing, and other weight-shaving tactics to help the machine achieve a weight that’s “seven times lighter than a typical motorcycle.” That’s not very clear, but I suspect it means that the Airbike weighs less than 254 pounds empty, which would allow it to fall under the legal requirement for an ultralight.

But that would present an issue. It cannot be classified as an ultralight in the United States since ultralights cannot legally exceed 63 mph. So, we’re back to needing a pilot certificate again, unless the U.S. version is slowed to 63 mph. Then, it still remains weird because in the U.S., ultralights are limited to carrying no more than five gallons of fuel, which means limited endurance. Likewise, if it’s an ultralight, then it’s subject to the same downsides as the Jetson One, in addition to however much you’ll have to pay for it.

Being in a class higher than an ultralight would mean licensing requirements, thus more costs, and competing with real planes and helicopters. You’re still not flying it to your office, either.

So, I’m not sure how this is supposed to reinvent mobility.

I’m also interested in hearing more details about the vehicle’s redundancies. Engine failures do happen in general aviation, but thankfully, most aircraft are designed to get to the ground relatively safely. Airplanes can glide while helicopters have autorotation. Even eVTOLs tend to have four or more motors, and in the worst-case scenario, can deploy an airframe parachute. In theory, a flying motorcycle would fall like a rock the moment it loses thrust. A parachute can be a lifesaver, but it is ineffective at the low altitudes shown in the promo videos. That motorcycle helmet might also not help as much as you’d hope.

But we’ll have to wait for more information as Volonaut doesn’t have any further details at this time. Patan has told Robb Report that the Airbike is “highly probable” to go into production, but he can’t give an estimate on launch date or price.

To be fair to Patan and Volonaut, the Airbike is seriously cool. It’s so awesome that it exists as a real, working vehicle. A flying motorcycle is easily one of the craziest vehicles I’ve heard of this year, and I’d be happy to don my cat ear helmet and take one for a flight ride. I even love how it looks like a Ducati from 100 years in the future.

But, if I could provide Volonaut a suggestion, I would shift from calling this the future of mobility and just lean on how awesome it is. You have a wicked cool product, double down on that! You don’t need to make almost impossible promises when you already have something that could sell itself on looks alone.