<story><title>Lilium achieves first main wing transition for all-electric aircraft [video]</title><url>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNl0DDUnp0E</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Deritio</author><text>Whenever I hear air taxi, I think about water bottles and airport security.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t want some rich dude flying over my house just because he&amp;#x2F;she can afford to take a airtaxi from the airport to city center while everyone else uses car or train.&lt;p&gt;For other use cases they can do what they want. Australian outback perhaps.&lt;p&gt;But airspace pollution and a potential small airplane crashing down in a city? No way.</text></item><item><author>marcosdumay</author><text>The low energy density of batteries favors &lt;i&gt;large&lt;/i&gt; planes and short distances.&lt;p&gt;The only reason you are seeing them in small planes is that electric propulsion makes VTOL viable, and VTOL favors small planes. There is just this niche in aviation that can&amp;#x27;t be filled at all by fossil fuel engines, so it&amp;#x27;s the first to adopt electric ones.&lt;p&gt;And yes, regulations will be the most important factor for those. I imagine it all depends on how silent those planes can be. But I doubt safety will be the limiting factor.</text></item><item><author>robonerd</author><text>This is kind of cool, but I&amp;#x27;m skeptical that these sort of planes will ever be practical as much more than rich people toys.  The power density of even speculative near-future batteries favors small airplanes and short flights.  This doesn&amp;#x27;t really mesh into the existing aviation industry, so proponents of these small electric planes usually propose creating new markets entirely; e.g. &lt;i&gt;Uber for Helicopters&lt;/i&gt;.  But I&amp;#x27;m pretty skeptical that laws will allow regular operation of these in residential neighborhoods for long, if at all.&lt;p&gt;Also, where is the vertical stabilizer and rudder?  I assume they&amp;#x27;re using differential thrust in powered flight, but what if they lose power?  Can this plane be controlled in a glide?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jstummbillig</author><text>&amp;gt; No way.&lt;p&gt;Wait until you see the motor carriages they claim are going to replace horses one day.</text></comment>
<story><title>Lilium achieves first main wing transition for all-electric aircraft [video]</title><url>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNl0DDUnp0E</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Deritio</author><text>Whenever I hear air taxi, I think about water bottles and airport security.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t want some rich dude flying over my house just because he&amp;#x2F;she can afford to take a airtaxi from the airport to city center while everyone else uses car or train.&lt;p&gt;For other use cases they can do what they want. Australian outback perhaps.&lt;p&gt;But airspace pollution and a potential small airplane crashing down in a city? No way.</text></item><item><author>marcosdumay</author><text>The low energy density of batteries favors &lt;i&gt;large&lt;/i&gt; planes and short distances.&lt;p&gt;The only reason you are seeing them in small planes is that electric propulsion makes VTOL viable, and VTOL favors small planes. There is just this niche in aviation that can&amp;#x27;t be filled at all by fossil fuel engines, so it&amp;#x27;s the first to adopt electric ones.&lt;p&gt;And yes, regulations will be the most important factor for those. I imagine it all depends on how silent those planes can be. But I doubt safety will be the limiting factor.</text></item><item><author>robonerd</author><text>This is kind of cool, but I&amp;#x27;m skeptical that these sort of planes will ever be practical as much more than rich people toys.  The power density of even speculative near-future batteries favors small airplanes and short flights.  This doesn&amp;#x27;t really mesh into the existing aviation industry, so proponents of these small electric planes usually propose creating new markets entirely; e.g. &lt;i&gt;Uber for Helicopters&lt;/i&gt;.  But I&amp;#x27;m pretty skeptical that laws will allow regular operation of these in residential neighborhoods for long, if at all.&lt;p&gt;Also, where is the vertical stabilizer and rudder?  I assume they&amp;#x27;re using differential thrust in powered flight, but what if they lose power?  Can this plane be controlled in a glide?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>inglor_cz</author><text>Air taxis are really useful in places divided by natural obstacles.&lt;p&gt;Hop over a fjord, hop over a mountain range. Much cheaper and eco-friendly than building bridges and tunnels everywhere, especially if the population density isn&amp;#x27;t high.</text></comment>