Jayu

Jayu
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
(no website)

Ben Sena & Soojae Jung, inventors of JAYU, are based at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and have had a life-long interest in aviation.

One can see from the close-up picture that they decided on a flying wing configuration for their aircraft, that it uses all-electric propulsion, takes off and lands vertically on the tail of the aircraft,  and has one set of propellers in the front of the aircraft and two sets of propellers in the rear of the aircraft. Each propeller set has two (2) coaxial propellers. In describing the aircraft's efficiency of operation during cruise, Sena states:

“First, we get out of the static thrust regime of the propellers and into the dynamic thrust where the effective angle of the propeller is reduced. So, you are in a higher lift-to-drag regime. And then by using the lift of the wings, we don’t have to provide pure thrust upwards (on a continuous basis) but can use the momentum and the lift effect to maintain the altitude and increase our range significantly.”

— GoFly Teams Prepare to Fly Again, Vertiflite, Nov/Dec 2020

They are in the GoFly Prize competition but a GoFly July 9, 2019 article did not state what phase or phases they have competed in. Based on the date of the article, it's likely they were in the Phase II portion of the competition. A quarter scale model of the aircraft was completed in July 2018. This model logged over three hours of flight over 120 flights, and work subsequently began on a half-scale model in December 2019. The team also participated in the competition for the Pratt & Whitney Disrupter Prize at Moffett Field.

Company Insights:

• Crunchbase

Resources:

• Article: Meet the Teams: Get to Know Team JAYU, From the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, GoFly Prize, Jul. 9, 2019
• GoFly Prize Facebook post: Team JAYU, GoFly Prize, Jul. 9, 2019
• Article: AHS Supports GoFly!, Vertiflite, Nov/Dec 2017 
• Article: Flying Solo: GoFly Advances Single-Passenger Air Mobility Solutions, Vertiflite, May/June 2019
• Article: GoFly Inspires Innovation, Vertiflite, May/June 2020
• Article: GoFly Teams Prepare to Fly Again, Vertiflite, Nov/Dec 2020