How much did the Bensen Mid-Jet weigh empty?

Short answer

One hundred pounds, or 45 kg: that was the empty weight of the Bensen Mid-Jet, a small single-seat open-frame helicopter that Igor Bensen developed in the United States in the early 1950s. Its maximum weight was set at 500 lb (227 kg).

Published: November 5, 2026 · Updated: November 5, 2026 · Edited by Above Ten Thousand · Editorial policy

How much did the Bensen Mid-Jet weigh empty?

Hiller XHOE-1 Hornet

One hundred pounds empty

The Bensen Mid-Jet was a small helicopter that Igor Bensen developed in the United States in the early 1950s. Its empty weight was 100 lb, equivalent to 45 kg. The aircraft's maximum weight was set at 500 lb (227 kg). The model's name was a play on words with "Midget jet".

A single-seater with tip-mounted ramjets

The Mid-Jet was an open-structure single-seat machine, based on the B-5 rotor kite, with small ramjets mounted as tipjets on the rotor blades. Those ramjets ran on gasoline or fuel oil.

What the 1954 trials showed

Trials conducted in 1954 showed that the aircraft was capable of lifting four times its own weight. Those same trials credited it with a cruising speed of 75 mph (120 km/h).