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I'm very skeptical of their claims of better safety that regular helicopters. Thanks to "autorotation" a helicopter can safely land in most situations even with

I'm very skeptical of their claims of better safety that regular helicopters. Thanks to "autorotation" a helicopter can safely land in most situations even with complete power failure. The claims of safety of this craft seems to derive from single rotor failure resilience and ease of use, which doesn't impress me much.

lujim 10y ago
It probably falls into the realm of safer than a piston powered R-22, but less safe that a multi engine turbine powered helicopter.
jerf 10y ago
It seems to me that it depends on how it's wired up internally, where we can't see it. If all the drone controls are wired to one battery controlled by one computer, yeah, there's a lot of single-points-of-failure there, and the result is scarier than a helicopter to me. On the other hand, if it was basically a whole bunch of independent drones with pretty much their own electronics (I'll permit for convenience a single charging bus), and communicating with active-acknowledgement protocols such that each drone assumes the others are failed unless there is active assurance they are on and working, the whole ensemble can come out much safer than a helicopter. In theory you could get to the point where it doesn't just have no single point of failure, but even no dual- or treble-points of failure either. Depends on the details.
- FabHK 10y ago
  I'm pretty sure they've thought of avoiding single points of failures. It's my understanding that there are multiple busses, and I assume that failure of a single battery only shortens the range, not leading to a catastrophic failure. The 18-rotor Volocopter can have several rotors fail with no problem before the ballistic rescue parachute becomes necessary.
FabHK 10y ago
The volocopter can still fly and land safely when one or more engines or rotors fail (up to 6 out of the 18, provided they're not all adjacent, if I'm not mistaken). In case of a complete power failure, a light-weight ballistic rescue parachute will let the whole thing glide to earth. There might be some altitude where the parachute doesn't have enough time to deploy, but that's really the same problem as with a helicopter (where autorotation is only possible from certain altitude/airspeed combinations) - so you have to avoid staying in that critical region. I think it is premature to make pronouncements on the safety - piston engines don't really have a great safety record. Turbines are amazingly reliable of course, but the entire helicopter ensemble still fails occasionally. Electric motors and batteries (plus maybe petrol powered generators, or fuel cells) are just an entirely different technology stack, whose reliability remains to be seen. I'm optimistic, though.

lujim 10y ago

It probably falls into the realm of safer than a piston powered R-22, but less safe that a multi engine turbine powered helicopter.

jerf 10y ago

It seems to me that it depends on how it's wired up internally, where we can't see it. If all the drone controls are wired to one battery controlled by one computer, yeah, there's a lot of single-points-of-failure there, and the result is scarier than a helicopter to me. On the other hand, if it was basically a whole bunch of independent drones with pretty much their own electronics (I'll permit for convenience a single charging bus), and communicating with active-acknowledgement protocols such that each drone assumes the others are failed unless there is active assurance they are on and working, the whole ensemble can come out much safer than a helicopter. In theory you could get to the point where it doesn't just have no single point of failure, but even no dual- or treble-points of failure either. Depends on the details.

FabHK 10y ago
I'm pretty sure they've thought of avoiding single points of failures. It's my understanding that there are multiple busses, and I assume that failure of a single battery only shortens the range, not leading to a catastrophic failure. The 18-rotor Volocopter can have several rotors fail with no problem before the ballistic rescue parachute becomes necessary.

FabHK 10y ago

The volocopter can still fly and land safely when one or more engines or rotors fail (up to 6 out of the 18, provided they're not all adjacent, if I'm not mistaken). In case of a complete power failure, a light-weight ballistic rescue parachute will let the whole thing glide to earth. There might be some altitude where the parachute doesn't have enough time to deploy, but that's really the same problem as with a helicopter (where autorotation is only possible from certain altitude/airspeed combinations) - so you have to avoid staying in that critical region. I think it is premature to make pronouncements on the safety - piston engines don't really have a great safety record. Turbines are amazingly reliable of course, but the entire helicopter ensemble still fails occasionally. Electric motors and batteries (plus maybe petrol powered generators, or fuel cells) are just an entirely different technology stack, whose reliability remains to be seen. I'm optimistic, though.