I just skim-read a mainstream news article about eVtols in the (London) Times, full of the usual rubbish. One interesting point: despite the marketing dreams of affordable quadcopters everywhere, they realistically think the future lies in undercutting turbine helicopters on price and taking market share from luxury short distance charters. Basically, a certain amount of CPL(H) jobs will transform to drone pilot jobs, with only a small increase in overall pilot numbers.
“future lies in undercutting turbine helicopters on price and taking market share from luxury short distance charters.”
The decision will be made by the passengers’ insurers. Or by their Company insurer. Undercutting cost of flight would be irrelevant for the ’luxury" market.
All this assumes that quadcopters will ever work for human transport, meeting AOC safety requirements, etc.
I don’t see this happening for decades, regardless of battery technology and how the recharging problems are approached. Quadcopters need a huge amount of power.
Quadcopters are even worse than helicopters in terms of inefficiency. The RC ones and drones basically brute force themselves into the air (a bit like an aerobatic plane with a 1:1 thrust ratio hanging on the prop). Ones big enough to carry 2-4 people will also make one hell of a racket, and will be a lot more complex than a drone (if a motor fails on a drone, it will fall out the sky – but this is not a big deal for something weighing 2kg and not carrying anyone). It can only ever be niche, like a helicopter. The pilotless aspect won’t make them significantly cheaper – already 95% of the cost of running a helicopter is not the pilot’s wages and a quadcopter will be even more complex to maintain than a helicopter.
8 motors, 4 battery packs, and one pilot. United ordered 200.
That’s simply unbelievable.
2 years to get it certified.
Peter wrote:
That’s simply unbelievable.2 years to get it certified.
Not needing a runway definitely makes it more viable as urban transportation.
That’s simply unbelievable.
Delayed response…
Guess age shows. Exactly the same our whatever adjective parents once thought 
And once these thingies reliably flying, no need for Uber.
And that’ll be another big chunk outta our VFR GA airspace gone 🤬
Look at the cost of helicopter charter. It is huge.
What factors would make these cheaper? I cannot think of any. Turbines are expensive but they are only a small part of the cost of a public transport heli operation.
The DOC of a twin turbine heli is c. 1-2k/hour. Electric propulsion will shave a bit off that but against that you have the lower utilisation because the thing cannot be charged up in a few mins.
So, I call BS on all these rotary public transport projects.
Will it happen? Probably. Will it happen in my lifetime? Possibly.
There was a time not so many years ago when commercial helicopter pilots could make a living flying for photo and film shoots.
Much of that work is now done with drones and many of the pilots who saw this as a lifetime career are now out of work or have made a career change. Drones can go places you would never take a helicopter.
And some professional camera mounts and the camera itself weigh much more than many people.
