Jump pursues specialized medical response applications of eVTOL ‘air taxis’

The looming arrival of battery-powered air taxis may conjure futuristic, Jetson-esque images of urban aerial travel, but California aviation startup Jump Aero is eschewing the allure – and anticipated profits – of that mass market transportation potential to develop an electric takeoff and landing plane (eVTOL) designed exclusively for getting medical responders to patients in time to provide critical care.

Petaluma-based Jump this month unveiled the model for its JA1 “Pulse,” a craft and project that takes the configurations and applications of myriad air taxi developers and stands them – almost literally – on their head. Or tuchas as it were, since the idea is to produce a tail-sitting eVTOL that a medical rescue expert can strap into while standing, then fly face-down (think “Wonder Woman”) in order to reach a stricken person within the ten-minute time frame before oxygen deprivation of many health emergencies starts causing…