World’s First All-Electric VTOL Jet Tested

[HiFlyer 9,345]

Very Jetsons! 

 

[n4gix 4,947]

Wow! That is pretty slick. I still am rolling my eyes from their use of the noun "jet" to describe this aircraft.

[JRMurray 214]

Very cool! I own an EREV (extended range electric vehicle), a 2017 Volt, so I'm really interested to see where this project ends up.

[Matthew Kane 1,343]

I could see this concept happening at some point

[Jim Young 2,356]

I won't.  I'm already 72...

[Paraffin 2,197]

I've been following conversation about this over at pprune,org. There are some questions being asked about whether 1) the video is a full-scale prototype or something smaller, and 2) what the actual weight of the prototype is. The degree of wobbling in flight during that video suggests something that doesn't weigh very much.

You could build something out of styrofoam and composites that would be easy to lift in this configuration. An airframe strong enough to carry 2 people and be reasonably crash-worthy, with enough battery power for practical flight endurance is a whole different ballgame. Especially if you add something like a ballistic parachute...

[HiFlyer 9,345]

This is described as a full scale prototype.

[Chock 17,769]

It's just totally annoying to watch the video with the narrator repeatedly referring to it as a jet; it's quite cleary not a jet, it's using ducted fans.

[Paraffin 2,197]

On 4/24/2017 at 11:44 AM, HiFlyer said:

This is described as a full scale prototype.

I believe the language used was scaled prototype. Take another look from a different angle, same office. Either this guy is a giant, or...  

A consensus seems to be growing (at least on pprune) that a 25 kg RC model was used in the video. I don't know if it's the one shown here or not.

[HiFlyer 9,345]

55 minutes ago, Paraffin said:

I believe the language used was scaled prototype. Take another look from a different angle, same office. Either this guy is a giant, or...  

Picture seems fine to me. I think people are being fooled by a tricks of perspective, but to be sure, I went back and screencapped shots that I remember from watching the video.