Florida Poly Police Add a Jetson ONE eVTOL, but FAA Approval Comes First

A university police department in central Florida now has an aircraft its officers can climb into. Florida Polytechnic University in Lakeland has taken delivery of a Jetson ONE, a single-seat electric multirotor. The school says it is the first U.S. law enforcement agency to add an eVTOL to its operations. The story has been trending on HoverNews and in car and tech media this week, partly because of how the aircraft sounds. One outlet described it as a swarm of angry wasps.

What Florida Poly bought

The aircraft is nicknamed Astro, after the dog in “The Jetsons.” The Jetson ONE is an aluminum and carbon-fiber frame with an open cockpit and eight electric motors arranged on four arms. Carscoops reports it weighs about 190 pounds, flies for about 20 minutes and is limited to 63 mph. Carscoops also put the price at $148,000. Jetson CEO Stéphan D’haene told the university the company moved the order ahead of a roughly three-year waiting list because of the school’s STEM focus and the public safety mission.

Police Chief Aaron Murray says Astro could help officers watch over the campus and surrounding land and reach places patrol cars can’t get to. It could also help with recovery after storms and with getting emergency supplies where they’re needed quickly. The department plans to offer it to other agencies in the region for emergency response. It already has a small-drone unit. The difference is that Astro can carry a first responder to someone who needs help, not just find them. The aircraft will also be used in research. Florida Poly started an aerospace engineering degree this fall, and faculty and students plan to use Astro’s flight data in senior capstone projects.

The catch: it isn’t cleared for police work yet

Florida Poly says it is in the final stages of seeking FAA approval to use the aircraft in operations. That approval matters because of how the Jetson ONE is normally flown. In the U.S., it is designed to fit the FAA’s Part 103 ultralight rules. Ultralights don’t need an airworthiness certificate, registration, or a pilot certificate or medical. In exchange, the rules are strict about how they can be used:

• Part 103 vehicles are for recreation or sport only, and a police patrol is neither.
• They can’t fly over congested areas of cities or towns or over open-air crowds.
• They’re limited to daylight, with only a narrow twilight exception for vehicles with lighting.
• Top speed is 55 knots, which is where the 63 mph limit comes from.

Those limits would block a lot of what police aviation does. The school hasn’t said what kind of FAA approval it’s seeking, so it’s unclear what it will be allowed to do or when. For now, Astro is a training and research aircraft waiting on federal approval, not an aircraft on regular patrol.

The timing fits a broader push in the state. Florida is one of the participants in the FAA’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program. The SunTrax test facility in Auburndale, about four miles from campus, expects to begin eVTOL testing by the end of 2026.

What this means for drone pilots

• Different aircraft, different rules. A Jetson ONE carries a person, so it falls outside Part 107. Part 107 covers unmanned aircraft under 55 pounds. Part 103 covers single-occupant ultralights, and neither rule set works as a shortcut for commercial or government use.
• More low-altitude traffic. Personal eVTOLs, police drones and delivery aircraft will increasingly share the airspace below 1,000 feet. See-and-avoid and right-of-way rules matter more each year.
• Public safety drone programs are growing. Departments that start with small drones are now looking at bigger tools. Certified pilots with search-and-rescue, thermal and night experience are the people those agencies hire and train first.

If public safety flying is your goal, a remote pilot certificate is where it starts. Our Part 107 course gets you test-ready and teaches the airspace basics every agency drone team relies on.

Sources: Florida Polytechnic University; Carscoops; Jetson; HoverNews; 14 CFR Part 103

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