First Look at Janus-I, an Innovative Suitcase Helicopter that Soars

Aamir Khollam stepped out of his weather-beaten SUV into the blinding snowy vastness of Svalbard, where the biting wind lashed through his parka like a fresh shave. He yanked open the trunk and pulled out a black duffel bag, a bit bigger than the one he’d toss into the back of the car for a quick weekend getaway. With a few yanks of the zipper, the bag came apart… and out spilled Janus-I, a folding helicopter that had already conquered the Himalayas.

Janus-I all started as a pet project for a group of engineers in a workshop in Shenzhen who were fed up with lugging those giant drones and ultralights that needed a private hangar to call home. They wanted something that could fit into a lone adventurer’s car, be grabbed at a moment’s notice, and get you out of a tight spot. When folded up, Janus-I is really compact – 3 feet long, 2 feet wide, 1 foot 10 inches tall (1099 by 640 by 665 mm to be ‘official’) – while weighing only 70 kilos to boot, so you can pretty much fit it into any family vehicle. Unzip it and the wings emerge like a sleepy spider waking from its slumber, rotors spinning into place for a straight-up vertical takeoff with no runway required – it simply leaps straight up on four propellers powered by a small turboshaft engine that sips heavy fuel rather than guzzling batteries or gas.

Eric Young managed to get his hands on a prototype last summer. He unboxed it, stepped aboard, and was swooping over rolling hills in 30 minutes. The fly-by-wire technology gets a lot of credit here: electrical impulses jump from the joysticks to the servos, managing the details of trim and torque while you concentrate on where you’re going. Most importantly, stability is built in; gyroscopes and algorithms work together to absorb gusts and correct leans before you even notice them. Plus, Janus I is categorized as an ultralight, thus no certifications are required to fly it.


Expect speeds of up to 160 kilometers per hour, or faster than a highway journey. There’s also considerable altitude to gain, with peaks exceeding 6,000 metres high, where the air thins and the view becomes razor sharp. Endurance has come a long way since those brief 40-minute excursions; now we’re talking about hard 8-hour patrols that don’t require repeated stops to fill up on gasoline.The payload is limited to 200 kgs, which is plenty for a pilot and kit, or you can remove the pilot and load in supplies. With a maximum take-off weight of 270 kgs, you’re able to bring a lot of gear or even a second person if necessary.

The Janus-I’s modularity is what makes it a serious piece of equipment. You can add a cockpit pod for your own personal thrill ride, or reconfigure it for unmanned runs with cameras installed low to scout out remote trails. Casualty carriers are used for medevacs, whereas cargo variants just transport crates of goods to a remote camp. Two person versions will squeeze in tandem seats for shared adventures, though you have to bear in mind that will cut down your range a bit.


During an Arctic demonstration, Khollam attempted a cargo exchange, filling up with 150 kg of survival goods and autopiloting across a 50-kilometer fjord to a research outpost. The return voyage included a batch of ice core samples that had surprisingly not been touched by the cold. The idea is that this mobility will come in handy in the real world, such as delivering medicines to clinics on distant islands, transporting tools to avalanche zones, or just rescuing a hiker from a swamp.
[Source]