3 ms·

I'd assume it's more about redundancy - 1/18 failed motors vs 1/4 would be much safer to land. Also means the replacement motors would be cheaper (individually)

• wongarsu 3y ago
  And having more redundancy presumably means you can build each one cheaper and don't have to inspect them as much. Smallish helicopters aren't that expensive. Maintenance and fuel are though. Going electric already helps with the fuel, going for many motors helps with the maintenance.
  • onlyrealcuzzo 3y ago
    Helicopters are lucky to get 10 mpg. The range of an electric helicopter is going to make it impractical, and I doubt that's going to change any time soon. Gas stores energy in 100x less weight than lithium ion. Electric motors are 2x more efficient. You're still going to need space and weight for ~50x more battery, which is hard to come by...