That is a poor choice of words for an article on arstechnica. Flaps have nothing to do with directing the attitude of the aircraft, and so are not "a requireme

That is a poor choice of words for an article on arstechnica. Flaps have nothing to do with directing the attitude of the aircraft, and so are not "a requirement" for one. Many aircraft, including the Wright Flyer, don't have flaps. What they actually mean is control surfaces. And with that, I see little advantage to using jets of air over, for example, a flexible wing or an aircraft controlled exclusively by vectored thrust. This article seems to be excessive hype about a minor experiment in aeronautics.