The Utah Department of Transportation (DoT) and Jump Aero are to work together to see what it would take get full-state coverage with the developer’s eVTOL aircraft.

US State Utah signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with California-based Jump Aero earlier this month through its aeronautics division. It sets the stage for Utah to determine how many Jump JA-1 Pulse personal eVTOL aircraft it would need to acquire in order to provide life-saving response times throughout the state. The MoU will also look at how best to integrate the technology into Utah’s existing first response system.

Paul Damron, Advanced Air Mobility manager, Utah DoT’s Division of Aeronautics, said: “We have been following Jump Aero’s progress for a number of years and are excited to formalize a working relationship to bring this technology to Utah.” 

Utah is particularly well-suited to the JA-1 Pulse as it has many rural communities and welcomes a large influx of tourists to its numerous remote natural attractions. In many areas, ambulance arrival and first response times can be well beyond what is considered necessary to support positive outcomes due to distances and terrain, said Jump Aero.

Earlier this month at our San Francisco event, Jump Aero revealed their plans for their fast emergency response aircraft. With a focus on the first eight minutes, the one-person eVTOL it is developing will be capable of landing almost anywhere. It will fly a trained emergency responder to the scene and then the aircraft is loaded onto a vehicle and driven back to base after deployment.

Jump Aero president and CEO, Carl Dietrich said: “It is incredibly gratifying to now have an official way in which we can work with the State and their expert first responders to bring the JA-1 and its life saving potential to the people of Utah. We are looking forward to continuing to build a long-term relationship with Utah and to providing them with this advanced emergency response capability into the future.