FutureFlight
Jump Teams With Caltech to Develop "Electronic Parachute" for eVTOL Aircraft
Research work is to be conducted under a new Small Business Technology Transfer research contract awarded this week by the U.S. Air Force’s Agility Prime program.

Jump Aero is partnering with Caltech university to develop a so-called “electronic parachute” to help pilots land their aircraft safely in the event of flight controls being damaged. The work will be conducted under a Small Business Technology Transfer research contract awarded this week by the U.S. Air Force’s Agility Prime program to accelerate the development of advanced air mobility vehicles that could have a dual military-civil use.

The “electronic parachute” consists of an adaptive flight controller pre-tuned in simulation mode for various system failure scenarios with a machine-learned neural network that would enable the pilot to initiate a rapid recalibration in the event of midair damage. The simulation will be based on Jump Aero’s JA1 eVTOL aircraft, which it is developing to help emergency first responders get to the scene of accidents.