Here’s the Volocopter being shown at the opening keynote of the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas tonight, apparently the first time such a thing has been done on stage. Albeit heavily shielded by a curtain of plate glass and securely tethered by ‘tie your Cessna down’ style nylon ropes. The whole production must have cost … Quite a lot.
Which got me thinking: if the dream of personal flight is so overwhelming to the tech industry, how is it that my little Cessna (about the same size as the Volocopter) is just about the only one parked at the North Las Vegas airport to visit the show? OK there are a couple of fancy biz jets out there that probably delivered tech industry high rollers, but ‘personal’ planes? Nah.
I’ve flown here for every CES since the ‘90s, but I’ve never met anyone else doing that. There must be others, surely? Otherwise, the market for the Volocopter might be a little, err, disappointing.
Thoughts, anyone?
A Cessna isnt electric and cant do vertical take off and landing ?
I’m intrigued by how the power surges needed to handle the turbulence amongst buildings in moderate winds will be provided. Not just down and updrafts, but horizontal, and all directions in between.
If enough people used them to reduce traffic jams, there would be aerial traffic jams.
Cars were great for fast city transport when only a few could afford them.
Maoraigh wrote:
If enough people used them to reduce traffic jams, there would be aerial traffic jams.
The noise of all those tiny rotors beating the air into submission would also be an issue. Not to mention the profligate energy usage of such inefficient aircraft that literally have to brute force themselves into the air.
Aveling wrote:
if the dream of personal flight is so overwhelming to the tech industry, how is it that my little Cessna is just about the only one parked at the North Las Vegas airport to visit the show?
Arne wrote:
The dream is to go A to B in a straight line, with neither A nor B being airports, and none of the passengers knowing how to fly. As close to teleportation as can be.
If that’s a dream, what’s a nightmare?
As a direct answer to the question of why there aren’t light aircraft lined up at North Las Vegas, I’d say look at Henderson! 
I think the dream is complete control over people. The driverless car can be controlled by our masters. We’ll have nothing we can control. People can just get stoned on legal cannabis to keep them peaceful.
While Google Maps is great, it concerns me that I’m asked to give a *rating for a transport business I’d never heard of, which I find is near my EASA AME’s place.
I’m more concerned about Elon than Kim having rockets. 
Maoraigh wrote:
I think the dream is complete control over people. The driverless car can be controlled by our masters. We’ll have nothing we can control. People can just get stoned on legal cannabis to keep them peaceful.
While Google Maps is great, it concerns me that I’m asked to give a *rating for a transport business I’d never heard of, which I find is near my EASA AME’s place.
I’m more concerned about Elon than Kim having rockets.
I agree….the seemingly inexorable rush into making humans redundant in almost all aspects of work and life makes me dread my children’s future…
