It's not. It has a range of 60 miles and cruise speed of 93 mph, giving an endurance of 40 minutes. In fixed-wing forward flight, this aircraft is slower than a

It's not. It has a range of 60 miles and cruise speed of 93 mph, giving an endurance of 40 minutes. In fixed-wing forward flight, this aircraft is slower than an R22 designed in the 1970s, which can fly 240 miles at 110 mph. I have no doubt that they spent a lot of time optimizing the rotor/disk hubs on this thing for forward flight, but anyway you slice it, it's a very messy wing. That has compromised its performance in both forward and hovering flight, while gaining mechanical simplicity. What this is is a first step, and as battery tech improves, this is the right direction. But the performance is not impressive. This is like a self-driving electric golf cart you ride to get from your doorstep to the entrance of your gated community, in a world of Honda Civics that go 500 miles on a single tank.