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Exciting times for VTOL companies. They've been called various flavours of "scam" or "vapourware" a lot because of their energy demands, but ultimately they're

Exciting times for VTOL companies. They've been called various flavours of "scam" or "vapourware" a lot because of their energy demands, but ultimately they're all bets on the continued improvements of battery tech, which is a pretty safe bet. There's tens of billions of capital flowing into battery development every year (https://report.volta.foundation/annual-battery-report/public/Battery_Report_2022.pdf https://report.volta.foundation/annual-battery-report/public...), so if you have everything else nailed down and just need better batteries, you're in good shape.

obloid 3y ago
The Moller Skycar [1] will finally have it's day! 1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moller_M400_Skycar https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moller_M400_Skycar
azinman2 3y ago
My understanding is that even if you solve the actual plane + battery etc, the real rub is where do you take off and land? Most of the demand is going into/out of a city, and cities have very few places appropriate to land helicopters. Basically at the top of buildings that already have structural support, which are expensive and few.
- Someone 3y ago
  _If_ we can make them generate a lot less noise and be a lot safer (both not that unrealistic), I would think more places to land them would rapidly pop up. Also, but that’s in the really long term, if we could do air traffic control for millions of machines without creating congestion, I would expect city centers to sprawl out a lot. Why impress your clients with an office on the 50th floor of a skyscraper in Manhattan if you also can put it on a hillside overlooking some national forest, unreachable by car, but only 20 minutes flying away?
  - 0cf8612b2e1e 3y ago
    The rest of us plebs that are forced back to the office do not get a spot on the helicopter?
  - _hypx 3y ago
    Helicopters are VTOLs. And all VTOL concepts have basically the same aerodynamic problems. So no, it is incredibly unlikely these problems can be solved easily. Which is why VTOL concepts have stayed vaporware. People are simply trying to sell helicopters with a new name. It mirrors the endless attempts to build systems that work exactly like trains, but with a much sillier mechanism of operation. Both strategies are built on willful ignorance of what they're really trying to do, and are nearly guaranteed to fail.
fomine3 3y ago
If battery is the only problem, it can be solved by using gas now (except emissions). There are many reasons human riding eVTOL called scam.

obloid 3y ago

The Moller Skycar [1] will finally have it's day! 1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moller_M400_Skycar https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moller_M400_Skycar

azinman2 3y ago

My understanding is that even if you solve the actual plane + battery etc, the real rub is where do you take off and land? Most of the demand is going into/out of a city, and cities have very few places appropriate to land helicopters. Basically at the top of buildings that already have structural support, which are expensive and few.

Someone 3y ago
_If_ we can make them generate a lot less noise and be a lot safer (both not that unrealistic), I would think more places to land them would rapidly pop up. Also, but that’s in the really long term, if we could do air traffic control for millions of machines without creating congestion, I would expect city centers to sprawl out a lot. Why impress your clients with an office on the 50th floor of a skyscraper in Manhattan if you also can put it on a hillside overlooking some national forest, unreachable by car, but only 20 minutes flying away?
- 0cf8612b2e1e 3y ago
  The rest of us plebs that are forced back to the office do not get a spot on the helicopter?
- _hypx 3y ago
  Helicopters are VTOLs. And all VTOL concepts have basically the same aerodynamic problems. So no, it is incredibly unlikely these problems can be solved easily. Which is why VTOL concepts have stayed vaporware. People are simply trying to sell helicopters with a new name. It mirrors the endless attempts to build systems that work exactly like trains, but with a much sillier mechanism of operation. Both strategies are built on willful ignorance of what they're really trying to do, and are nearly guaranteed to fail.

fomine3 3y ago

If battery is the only problem, it can be solved by using gas now (except emissions). There are many reasons human riding eVTOL called scam.