The flight technology is trivial, no joke, that’s a task every competent aerospace engineer can solve. But as long as batteries don’t get much, much denser energywise (by multitudes) those VTOL capabilities will suck every battery dry within a few (very few) minutes. Proof: This thing would already be on the market if it worked on combustion engines or turbines and simply be a helicopter.
There are plenty of use cases for short haul flights. The major advantage these things have is cost per fight hour, which is a really big deal in anything aviation related. And batteries are getting better fast. The latest cells already reach 360 Wh/kg. That’s pretty close to being competitive for aircraft.
(Copied my comment from another post.)
The flight technology is trivial, no joke, that’s a task every competent aerospace engineer can solve. But as long as batteries don’t get much, much denser energywise (by multitudes) those VTOL capabilities will suck every battery dry within a few (very few) minutes. Proof: This thing would already be on the market if it worked on combustion engines or turbines and simply be a helicopter.
Physics is the endgame. They can’t change that.
There are plenty of use cases for short haul flights. The major advantage these things have is cost per fight hour, which is a really big deal in anything aviation related. And batteries are getting better fast. The latest cells already reach 360 Wh/kg. That’s pretty close to being competitive for aircraft.