Volocopter’s Simple ‘Giant Drone’ Approach May Be A Winner

Volocopter’s Simple ‘Giant Drone’ Approach May Be A Winner

Christian Bauer of Volocopter shows off the battery packs in a mock-up of their short range e-VTOL ... [+] in its first showing in the USA at CoMotion LA It's been estimated that around 300 different companies are trying to build new "flying car" electric VTOL aircraft for the anticipated revolution, and there are almost as many different design philosophies. Most are opting for hybrid designs that feature rotors for vertical takeoff and landing, but regular fixed wings for horizontal flight. There's a good reason for that — fixed wing flight is much more efficient, and for electric aircraft, battery weight is the key issue, and that makes efficiency really important. In spite of this, one of the companies furthest along in actual deployment is using a much more basic electric multirotor design with no fixed wings. It's effectively a human sized drone, with 18 rotors that visually reminds you of a classic helicopter with the one giant rotor replaced by a disk of smaller ones. But this is the company that has been doing more demo flights and making more deals to go into real service. There's a reason. This simpler design is less daring. It's something that is