So putting aside the environmental factors for a moment, I understand why someone might go for a traditional plane vs this (tradeoffs explained). But what about helicopter? Are there any downsides to this?
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Range:
"It's about the same as a normal helicopter? I mean, there are some high-performance helicopters that go a littl…
So putting aside the environmental factors for a moment, I understand why someone might go for a traditional plane vs this (tradeoffs explained). But what about helicopter? Are there any downsides to this?
****************
Range:
"It's about the same as a normal helicopter? I mean, there are some high-performance helicopters that go a little bit further, larger helicopters, but smaller helicopters are right in that range."
Cargo space:
"So, more cargo, you carry more stuff."
Cost of buying:
"This plane costs $3.5 to $4 million, and a helicopter will be $6 to $8 million."
Cost of fuel:
"So, for example, for a two-hour-long trip that we fly regularly in this airplane, we'll put $17 of
electricity in the plane and go and fly for 2 hours. If you go fly a helicopter, it's really bad. But even if you fly a fixed-wing turbine aircraft, that's like $700 of fuel."
--Googling different sites, helicopter might be a couple hundred per hour.
Cost of maintenance, not sure if this is compared to plane or helicopter:
" and the maintenance is like a third to a quarter." unclear if that's relative to a plane or helicopter.
Longevity:
"So, our aircraft will last 35,000 to 40,000 hours. That means you're going to replace the batteries 10 to 20 times within the life of the airplane. Which, by the way, is about how often you change an engine on an airplane over the life of the airplane."
Cost of replacement did not get fleshed out. I was about this, but Googling and it appears it's probably in the 250 KWH range. So 4 low-end Tesla's. They say their batteries end up in the 2,000 - 3,000 cycle range before needing replacement, which means replacement costs are a fraction of the gas savings. I don't want to speculate on the cost of higher certification cells, but lets use $100/KWH, we are talking about $25K. If its $400/KWH that we are talking $100K. Assuming only 2,000 cycles, that's just $50 of the fuel savings per cycle...
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What am I missing here? Now sometimes new tech is just better in all dimensions, but that's rare for a first generation product. Also, given the only person I've heard speak about it is CEO of the company, I'm very curious if anyone else has any thoughts on this. Are we going to see sales of small helicopters collapse?
So putting aside the environmental factors for a moment, I understand why someone might go for a traditional plane vs this (tradeoffs explained). But what about helicopter? Are there any downsides to this?
****************
Range:
"It's about the same as a normal helicopter? I mean, there are some high-performance helicopters that go a little bit further, larger helicopters, but smaller helicopters are right in that range."
Cargo space:
"So, more cargo, you carry more stuff."
Cost of buying:
"This plane costs $3.5 to $4 million, and a helicopter will be $6 to $8 million."
Cost of fuel:
"So, for example, for a two-hour-long trip that we fly regularly in this airplane, we'll put $17 of
electricity in the plane and go and fly for 2 hours. If you go fly a helicopter, it's really bad. But even if you fly a fixed-wing turbine aircraft, that's like $700 of fuel."
--Googling different sites, helicopter might be a couple hundred per hour.
Cost of maintenance, not sure if this is compared to plane or helicopter:
" and the maintenance is like a third to a quarter." unclear if that's relative to a plane or helicopter.
Longevity:
"So, our aircraft will last 35,000 to 40,000 hours. That means you're going to replace the batteries 10 to 20 times within the life of the airplane. Which, by the way, is about how often you change an engine on an airplane over the life of the airplane."
Cost of replacement did not get fleshed out. I was about this, but Googling and it appears it's probably in the 250 KWH range. So 4 low-end Tesla's. They say their batteries end up in the 2,000 - 3,000 cycle range before needing replacement, which means replacement costs are a fraction of the gas savings. I don't want to speculate on the cost of higher certification cells, but lets use $100/KWH, we are talking about $25K. If its $400/KWH that we are talking $100K. Assuming only 2,000 cycles, that's just $50 of the fuel savings per cycle...
*************************
What am I missing here? Now sometimes new tech is just better in all dimensions, but that's rare for a first generation product. Also, given the only person I've heard speak about it is CEO of the company, I'm very curious if anyone else has any thoughts on this. Are we going to see sales of small helicopters collapse?