but will you match the power and controllability of a conventional TR?
... Elon Musk already acknowledges the issues with cooling high performance motors.
... It seems an odd solution to a problem that hardly exists ...
BTW I wouldn't hold up RIPS as a great success - it is very power hungry and heavy.
Yes, why wouldn't it? Simply changing the means of providing the rotation won't reduce performance. If anything it gives the potential for greater control.
Cooling high performance motors is where the major advancements in design and production have occurred. HEVs are major driver for this.
A problem that industry have been asked to provide solutions to. So somebody thinks it exists.
BTW RIPS is an example where industry has moved to make helicopters more viable. It being power hungry is exactly my point.
The technology is here, the engineering is possible. The question is whether the economics will move us in this direction or elsewhere.