Image Credit: Captain Electro.
Las Vegas - a city built on broken dreams, and the eternal hope that "this time" the house won't win. Quite fittingly, it is the setting for the Consumer Electronics Show, an annual event where technology companies dazzle us with solutions to problems we didn't know we had. I have seen smart toasters that require a subscription to brown your bread and toothbrushes that judge your flossing technique. But this year, amidst the sea of AI-powered uselessness, something actually interesting has emerged from the chaos.
It is called the LEO JetBike. And if you have ever looked at a motorcycle and thought, "This is fun, but I wish it could hover fifteen feet in the air and run out of fuel in ten minutes," then good news: your chariot has arrived.
Image Credit: LEO Flight.
The company behind this madness is LEO Flight, an Indiana-based outfit founded in 2021 by people who I can only assume are bored with gravity. They claim the JetBike is a "personal propeller-free eVTOL." Now, when I hear "propeller-free," I imagine some sort of sci-fi anti-gravity drive powered by dilithium crystals. In reality, it uses "electric jet propulsion" - it has a lot of very small, very angry fans hidden inside ducts.
LEO Flight calls this the "Electric Jetpack Technology." I call it a very expensive leaf blower that you sit on. But credit where credit is due - it looks absolutely fantastic. With a footprint of just 6.5 feet by 6.5 feet, it is compact enough to fit in a standard garage, assuming you have cleared out the old paint cans and the broken treadmill you swore you'd fix.
Image Credit: LEO Flight.
In the world of EVs, numbers are usually where the dream starts to unravel. And so… the JetBike has a top speed of roughly 60 mph. That doesn't sound like much when you are in a car, but when you are dangling in the air with nothing but a "roll-hoop safety frame" between you and a very hard pavement, 60 mph will likely feel like Mach 2.
The altitude is electronically limited to about 15 feet. This is a clever height. It is high enough to look cool and impress your neighbors, but low enough that when you inevitably crash, your next of kin will be able to identify you without the need for dental records.
Image Credit: LEO Flight.
The most concerning number, however, is the flight time. LEO Flight claims you will get about 10 to 15 minutes of joy per charge. That is barely enough time to take off, realize you have made a terrible mistake, and land again. If you fly it to the shops, you had better hope the shops are three minutes away, or you will be walking home carrying a very futuristic paperweight.
Powering this contraption is a solid-state battery. I have been hearing about the revolution of solid-state batteries for years. They are the "nuclear fusion" of the automotive world - always just around the corner, promising to solve all our range anxiety and fire-related woes. If LEO Flight has actually managed to put a working, production-ready solid-state battery in a consumer vehicle by 2026, I will eat my own shoes. And not the nice leather ones; I'll eat the running shoes.
Image Credit: LEO Flight.
Here is the part that genuinely frightens me. The JetBike is classified under FAA Part 103 ultralight rules. Let me translate it for those of you who don't speak bureaucrat: you do not need a pilot's license to fly it.
As Elon Musk famously once said: Let that sink in… We share the roads with people who cannot merge onto a highway without having a panic attack. We see drivers who treat turn signals as optional decorations. And now, the government says it is perfectly fine to give these same people a flying jet motorcycle. What could possibly go wrong?
Image Credit: LEO Flight.
LEO Flight says the system is "semi-autonomous" with intuitive controls, presumably to stop you from immediately flipping it upside down and turning yourself into a human lawn dart. But the lack of a barrier to entry is shocking. If you have the cash, you can fly.
Speaking of cash, the LEO JetBike will set you back $99,900. If you are feeling particularly impulsive, you can put down a $1,000 deposit right now. The company is even launching a "Pioneer Club" for the first 100 buyers, which promises "exclusive VIP group" access and merchandise. I hope the merchandise includes a helmet and a very comprehensive life insurance policy.
Image Credit: LEO Flight.
Deliveries are expected to begin in Q4 of 2026. This timeline is, in the polite parlance of the industry, "ambitious." In the skeptical parlance of a journalist who has seen a thousand eVTOL startups vanish into the ether, it is "optimistic."
As if the JetBike wasn't enough, LEO Flight is also teasing a bigger brother called the LEO Coupe. This is a full-blown flying car that they claim will do 200 mph. They plan to unveil it later this year. I would suggest they focus on getting the bike to stay in the air for more than 15 minutes first, but what do I know?
Image Credit: LEO Flight.
I want to mock the LEO JetBike. I really do. I want to point out that it is loud (80 decibels, or about the same as a garbage disposal), has the range of a neurotic golden retriever, and costs as much as a Porsche. I want to say that solid-state batteries are vaporware and that giving the general public access to vertical flight is a recipe for disaster. But I can't help myself. I want one.
There is something beautifully primal about the idea of strapping yourself to a jet engine and blasting off from your driveway. It is stupid, dangerous, and impractical. And that is exactly everything a vehicle should be.
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