London-based startup AltoVolo is aiming high with its entry in the developing eVTOL space. It plans to offer a powerful personal hybrid-electric aircraft that will seat three people, deliver 510 miles (821 km) of range, and hit cruise speeds up of to 220 mph (354 km/h) – all while making 80% less noise than a helicopter.
They’re just helicopters. That’s what the flying car design converges to, at least if you need a pilot. And I think those will be required for a while longer.
Yes - but here the words “flying car” do a lot of heavy lifting.
They feed people some expectations about an techno utopia as well as operating costs, availability, complexity, range, noise, maintenance none of which match reality.
Except that craft like this are much more efficient (i think) and easier to fly. Helicopters are notoriously hard to fly whereas anyone can fly a quadcopter, especially with assistance like auto-hover and whatnot.
I do think there is a market for these sort of vehicles (for the rich) once a design is settled on.
Larger rotor is more efficient. Agree on the hard to control, but that’s moot if you have a pilot, since they’ll need to be qualified to rotary wing. If you don’t have a pilot, then you’ll need to change the regulations significantly. I think that’s what they’re betting on, but it’s not a given my any means.
More efficient at helicopter things, but this is a VTOL which i think swings it back into its favor for standard flight.
I’m not an expert though. lol
Vtol just includes vertical takeoff and landing, which helicopters do. The motors for eVTOL can be smaller than engines, so maybe you save some weight avoiding the collective? The tail rotor is also just loss, so I would think 2 rotor would be the most efficient. But I think these companies go with more for additional residency?