Doroni Aerospace Yellowjacket Y6 (prototype)

(Image credit: Doroni Aerospace)

Yellowjacket Y6 (prototype)
Doroni Aerospace
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA
www.doroni.io

Founder and CEO Doron Merdinger started the Doroni company in 2016 because he believes the technology is now here to make the future of traveling clean and wheelless. Merdinger from the start, wants his electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft to be available to purchase by the consumer, businesses and governments. "Why limit the future?," says Merdinger, "Allow everyone to buy these (aircraft)." As of March 2024, Doroni has raised close to $6 million (USA) with over 430 pre-order requests. In February 2025, the company received a $30 million (USD) investment from Innovation Wings Industries (IWI), operating as Kingdom Aero Industries (KAI) located in Saudi Arabia.

Passenger safety and aircraft durability
The two most important goals for the company is passenger safety and durability of the aircraft. Safety is achieved by having multiple redundancies built into the aircraft, from multiple propellers and avionics, various anti-collision sensors and to a whole aircraft ballistic parachute. While today's conventional aircraft are overly complicated, durability is achieved by greatly reducing the amount of moving parts, keeping the aircraft simplified, using a modular design for easier maintenance and using off-the-shelf components.

Award winning design
On June 10, 2021, Space Florida and the Florida Venture Forum announced that Doroni won the 2nd Place prize of $15,000.00 USD at the all-virtual sixth annual 2021 Aerospace Innovation and Tech Forum. Twenty presenting companies were selected from a pool of more than 84+ applicants by a committee of active Florida venture capital investors. Space Florida provided the Accelerating Innovation prize money totaling $100,000.00 USD.

The company has an international team of engineers and designers prototype building, testing and ultimately, designing their production aircraft. The company is building a production prototype now but is not available for public viewing.

Yellowjacket Y6 passenger eVTOL aircraft (prototype)
The Yellowjacket Y6 is a one passenger eVTOL full-scale prototype with an aluminum airframe one passenger made for advanced air mobility (AAM). The color of the prototype reflects the name of the aircraft. The company used 3D printing to make the plastic parts of the aircraft, such as the seat and propeller nacelles. The aircraft is self-balancing. The name Y6, is decoded with the Y denoting the airframe configuration and the 6 denotes the six sets of propellers.

The pilot uses two joysticks for flight control or the pilot can use automatic flying controls. The estimated cruise speed, range, flight time and other specifications were never made known to the general public. The aircraft has six propellers inside three ducted housings, has six electric motors and is powered by battery packs. The dimensions of the aircraft are 8 feet, 11 inches (272 cm) length x 7 feet, 10 inches (238 cm) width. The pilot sits in an open cockpit with a seat belt and shoulder harness restraint system for safety. The aircraft lands on fixed wheeled landing gear attached to the bottom of the open-framed fuselage or lands on the bottom of the fuselage (without the wheels).

Future
The company predicts their eVTOL aircraft will eliminate the need for all roads. The company is also looking for investors. The company foresees that after a successful launch of their product their estimate for the first year in sales will be five million USD. The company plans to launch their first eVTOL aircraft in 2023. As of March 2026, the company expects initial deliveries of the H1-X passenger eVTOL aircraft in 2028.

Specifications:

• Aircraft type: Passenger eVTOL prototype aircraft
• Piloting: 1 pilot using two joysticks for flight control or the pilot can use automatic flying controls
• Cruise speed: Unknown
• Propellers: 6 propellers inside 3 ducted housings
• Electric Motors: 6 electric motors
• Power source: Battery packs
• Fuselage: 3D printed full-scale prototype with aluminum airframe
• Dimensions: 8 feet, 11 inches (272 cm) length X 7 feet, 10 inches (238 cm) width
• Windows: Open cockpit with seat belt and shoulder harness restraint system
• Landing gear: The aircraft lands on fixed wheeled landing gear attached to the bottom of the open-framed fuselage or lands on the bottom of the fuselage (without the wheels)
• Safety Features: The aircraft can take over the flying of the aircraft, if the passenger makes a mistake during flight because the aircraft will have Artificial Intelligence (AI) to keep the passenger safe. The aircraft is also self-balancing. Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP), provides safety through redundancy for its passengers and/or cargo. DEP means having multiple propellers and motors on the aircraft so if one or more motors or propellers fail, the other working motors and propellers can safely land the aircraft.

Related Aircraft:

• Doroni Aerospace Carbon One (concept design)
• Doroni Aerospace H1 (concept design)
• Doroni Aerospace H1 (technology demonstrator)
• Doroni Aerospace H1-X (concept design)
• Doroni Aerospace H1-X (mockup)
• Doroni Aerospace H1-X Cargo (concept design)
• Doroni Aerospace H1-XE EMS (concept design)
• Doroni Aerospace H1-XM Military (concept design)
• Doroni Aerospace H1-XP Police (concept design)
• Doroni Aerospace X8 (concept design)

Company Insights:

• Airframer
• Crunchbase
• Pitchbook
• Tracxn
• StartEngine

Resources:

• Doroni Aerospace website
• Doroni Aerospace Facebook
• Doroni Aerospace X (Formerly Twitter)
• Doroni Aerospace YouTube Channel
• Doroni Aerospace Instagram
• Doroni Aerospace LinkedIn
• Video: The Doroni Motion, Doroni, May 27, 2017
• Video: Doroni - A Wheelless vehicle, Doroni, July 11, 2017