http://www.jobyaviation.com/S2/
I can see a million reasons why this will never work but I am sure they are accepting deposits 
I can see a million reasons why this will never work …
Why shoudn’t it work? The only question is how long it will work. I give it 5 minutes using the best available battery technology and I doubt that they will reach their optimistic 200 MPH cruising speed before they run out of juice 
“reducing door-to-door time” – if you live in a mansion with a huge yard and have your own helipad at work :)
I give it 5 minutes using the best available battery technology
Fine if you have a fuel totaliser
if you live in a mansion with a huge yard and have your own helipad at work
Then you must ask who ever buys a helicopter? Yet lots of people do, and they tend to fly them regularly. And a much higher % of them are well funded than one sees in fixed wing piston GA. A colleague has just left FW maintenance and is working on helis, and reports his amazement at how much less the customers whinge. I suppose they have to pay, because everything on a heli, with the possible exception of the plastic bottle you pee into, is lifed
This project must be aimed at the helicopter market.
Electric is cool. Just ordered an all electric VW e-up to commute to work.
A bit strange this one, but it shows a nice feature of electric propulsion. Motors and propellers can be placed at unusual places and in unusual numbers.
Motors and propellers can be placed at unusual places and in unusual numbers.
Maybe. But 110 years of aviation have shown that there are good reasons for putting them in the “usual” places. But maybe, who knows?, this is the one that shows us all wrong!
Hmmmm… anyone calculated the weight of all those fancy tilt-rotor mechanisms? Skeptic – moi ?
But maybe, who knows?, this is the one that shows us all wrong!
Most certainly not. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should
Progress is inevitable and as the battery technology improves, this type of platform becomes more and more viable.
Nasa has already tested the leading edge rotor design and found it to be extremely efficient.
Yes, I think we’ll in the future see a lot more leading edge prop type solutions like mentioned NASA, to distribute thrust over wing and increase prop area. The fact is that if there’s no penalty for having multiple props, then more efficiency will be achieved. The more disc area you have, the more efficient things become. At least for subsonic aircraft.
