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Old 17th Feb 2017, 17:48
  #11 (permalink)  
Fly-by-Wife
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Dark side of the Moon
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Those rotors look a bit menacing! 2 on each corner, unguarded - they wouldn't do any unsuspecting bystanders any good, I imagine. That implies that take-off and landing sites would need to be large enough and protected enough to prevent an unfortunate coming together of persons and blades. Not exactly go-anywhere.

Where will the charging infrastructure be located? You won't find 50 / 100A sockets (and the right cables & connectors) just anywhere. A flight to (say) 10% of battery capacity would have to terminate at a charging point (assuming that batteries aren't easily transported & swapped), so either the flights have to be from charging point to charging point or the range is cut in half, so that a flight would be charging point - destination - back to charging point (unless there's a charging point closer to the destination than the starting point).

Based on 25 minute endurance and given average cruising speed of 60Km/h, that would give a max range charging point - charging point of 20km (12miles), or 10km (6 miles) charging point - destination - back to charging point, allowing 5 min / 20% reserve.

Payload isn't great - 100Kg eliminates a significant proportion of the population. I'm not obese and I'm 102Kg, excluding clothing.

There's a lot more infrastructure to be put in place before this is "real", I suspect. Electric vehicle charging points and hydrogen fuel outlets are still desperately thin on the ground even now, and these vehicles have been around a lot longer.

FBW
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