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Indeed, Alaska has this problem and worse. The region relies heavily on seaplanes and short-take-off-and-landing aircraft for logistics. These eVTOL aircraft wo
by Robotbeat 7y ago
Indeed, Alaska has this problem and worse. The region relies heavily on seaplanes and short-take-off-and-landing aircraft for logistics. These eVTOL aircraft would be great in Alaska and especially in places without lakes. Places without a lot of flat area for landing, places like Papua New Guinea, have no good options at all right now, so these VTOL aircraft will be transformative.
- Retric 7y agoIt’s not that difficult to learn how to fly a helicopter, you only need 20h with instructor before the first solo flight. While that’s just the beginning it shows getting the basic controls down is not the problem. Thus, these VTOL aircraft are only going to be game changers if they are vastly cheaper, which seems unlikely. The real issue is unit sales being so low. The R22 is a popular and ‘cheap’ helicopter ranking #8 in total sales, but it’s sold less than 5,000 units worldwide over 40 years. PS: Fixed wing aircraft are popular because they have a huge range of inherent advantages. VTOL sounds great, but the downsides are enormous.
- Robotbeat 7y agoVTOL share most of those advantages of winged aircraft. The reason eVTOL may well be cheaper is that they have a lot fewer moving parts than a helicopter (and much lower vibration, plus using cheaper, lower-maintenance electric motors instead of turbine engines) and much less (and cheaper) fuel. But it'll take good designs. The Lilium one seems non-optimal compared to the Heaviside. And don't rule out eSTOL. I think we'll see more of that. Helicopters have an operating cost per hour an order of magnitude higher than a comparable payload conventional aircraft. The purchase price per payload capacity is also nearly an order of magnitude different. It's not the operator cost that determines the difference in price between helicopters and CTOL.
- starpilot 7y agoIt's hard to claim they're cheaper when they have a fraction of the range of gas helicopters. It's apples to oranges, the flying cars now are equivalent to electric golf carts in performance.
- woodandsteel 7y agoFor those cases where their range is sufficient, they are vastly cheaper. And their range is going to increase over the years as batteries improve.
- Retric 7y agoHelicopters are VTOL, I don’t know what you think it means but it’s just ‘Vertical Take-Off and Landing”. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTOL https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTOL “This classification can include a variety of types of aircraft including fixed-wing aircraft as well as helicopters and other aircraft with powered rotors, such as cyclogyros/cyclocopters and tiltrotors.” Similarly, an electric helicopter would qualify as eVTOL. People generally aim for something more efficient in flight, but that’s a separate question.
- Robotbeat 7y agoYou’re right. I meant VTOL with wingborne cruise, like the V-22.
- FabHK 7y ago> Fixed wing aircraft are popular Even so, only about 1000 single engine piston airplanes are sold every year.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- Robotbeat 7y agoBut they last forever. For instance, there are still lots of single engine Piper Cubs (popular in Alaska for STOL capability) from the 1940s maintained, in use, and for sale: https://www.controller.com/listings/aircraft/for-sale/list/manufacturer/piper/model-group/cub https://www.controller.com/listings/aircraft/for-sale/list/m... (Additionally, a lot of general aviation aircraft have moved to turboprop in the last few decades.)
- FabHK 7y agoIt's about 500 single-engine turboprops per year. You're right, they last forever, and so the market for new aircraft is tiny. Really a vicious circle: high costs lead to low volume leads to high costs.
- benhurmarcel 7y agoThe economics hardly make sense for a congested city. Forget it for a remote area.