2 ms·

I would have assumed 12 motors is 11x more chances of failure than a helicopter.

• FabHK 10y ago
  It has 18 rotors (basically 3 on each of the corners of a hexagon, 6 in an inner circle, and 12 in an outer circle), each driven by its own engine. Pairs of rotors on opposite sides are driven by 9 independent powertrains and batteries, so failure of one battery/powertrain induces not much asymmetry and poses no problem. At least 4 rotors can fail and the aircraft still remains fully controllable. Beyond that, there is a ballistic rescue chute (as in the Cirrus SR20/SR22 fixed wing aircraft), which you can't really have, by construction, in a traditional helicopter.