The X in X-Planes stands for "eXperimental". The history of them goes back within the US to 1946 and as the list [1] of vehicles shows, these aircraft are inten

The X in X-Planes stands for "eXperimental". The history of them goes back within the US to 1946 and as the list [1] of vehicles shows, these aircraft are intended to test concepts and ideas, not provide a sellable solution to the market. Whilst most are betting that commercial electric in the air is going to be VTOL - and they do address the low endurance and runway issues you highlight - there are efficiency gains for longer distance in fixed wing designs, and you're going to have to think about electrification of that class of vehicle at some point. Put another way: we don't use helicopters for all passenger transport for a whole bunch of reasons, EVTOLs don't fix all those reasons, and so if you want to keep fixed wing aircraft around as a concept AND you want to use electric motors, at some point you're going to have to think about experimenting with electric passenger-carrying fixed wing aircraft. Thus: the X-57. You might wonder what the purpose of an experimental aircraft in this config is, if the eventual goal is to build airliners that can move lots of people. Well, the X-1 was no Concorde, but Concorde would not have happened without the X-1. And so it goes... It's OK then to think of the X-57 to an airliner of the future, as the X-1 was to Concorde. It's a whole set of interesting experiments that will validate some hypotheses, refute others, and we move along another step towards a better future. Seat count will get higher, endurance will improve, batteries will get lighter, and within 20 years, who knows where we'll be. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_X-planes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_X-planes