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Old 12th Oct 2016, 09:28
  #14 (permalink)  
Piltdown Man
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Wor Yerm
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The power, lift and endurance limitations will all be met. I cannot say when but it is fair to say that one/two person VTOL aircraft with reasonable payload and range will be technically achievable in the near future. But they will not be autonomous which will limit their appeal.

But when autonomous vehicles do exist there will be no limit to the number of crash-test dummies that will pay to have a ride in them. But before can plant their bums on the seats of these things, the mountains that will have to be overcome will be the sensor integration, reliability testing, failure handing and software. Manual control will not be an option. Simple events such as huge passengers with giant bags, medical emergencies, dogs chasing the landing gear, ingesting birthday balloons in cooling ducts, blocked/flooded/serviceable landing areas, tree growth, new (unauthorised) building works etc. will all have to be dealt with. And who will write the law to make these things safe to operate? Because to make them safe, the law will have to apply to virtually everything above ground. And then there are things we haven't thought about...
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