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So whats the real power consumption? After all, getting that thing up into the air IS the problem and not flying it. "These examples for car and VTOL have only
by sigi45 9y ago
So whats the real power consumption? After all, getting that thing up into the air IS the problem and not flying it.
"These examples for car and VTOL have only considered the energy required to cruise at a
specific speed, and doesn’t include the additional energy required to get the vehicle to cruise
for either the car (acceleration) or VTOL (takeoff). "
They know exactly why this figures are missing.
- FabHK 9y agohm, I tend to disagree. You might underestimate how much energy is spent on overcoming drag, and how strong the earth acceleration g is: One always needs to overcome it, and overcoming it just a bit more for a while is enough for a climb, basically. If we take the performance section for the Cessna 172 N, for example, we see that it burns 8.4 gallons per hour at a (speedy) 75% power cruise. It takes 10 minutes to climb up to 6000 ft, and burns 1.9 gallons. In cruise, it would burn 1.4 gallons in that time. So, the climb requires about a third more. So, given that PEVA (personal electric VTOL aircraft) would likely cruise at fairly low altitudes, and the climbing constitute only a small part of a flight, say a quarter, the total extra fuel consumption would be a fairly minor increase on top of the quoted numbers. Note also that cars tend to accelerate and brake much more than aircraft tend to climb and descent.