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comment by kleinbl00
kleinbl00  ·  2529 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Lillium builds an electric flying car that takes off vertically

I love how the tech industry is herping and derping their way to glory on this one while the FAA is requiring everything over 55lbs to have a tail number. Meanwhile FAR Part 103 basically says "keep it over an empty field or license it like a helicopter" and the same people who decry how dangerous motorcycles are envision a Utopian future where Uber pilots spirit you to the grocery store by lofting you over condos.

VCs can't change physics and the proliferation of UAVs has led to the proliferation of regulation. You can build it but no one will come.





rjw  ·  2529 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It looks like it could just be a small drone...

mk  ·  2529 days ago  ·  link  ·  

The way I see it, the only way we will be commuting in these things is when they, and everything else in the air, is flying itself.

kleinbl00  ·  2529 days ago  ·  link  ·  

That's not going to happen, either.

It's funny - the shit people want to do with these? You could do it all with helicopters right fucking now. But nobody does. (1) they're regulated (2) they require expertise to fly (3) they're noisy as fuck and there's no quicker way to piss off a neighborhood than fly over it in a helicopter.

Have you noticed that these things are never shown with production audio? It's always a lovely soundtrack? That Lilium thing has a bunch of ducted electric fans which means it sounds a lot like a zero-bypass turbojet. Except instead of being an airplane with a turbojet that might actually fly if it ran into trouble, it'll turn into a rock instead.

It's funny to me how nobody asks the FAA how they'd feel about a thousand pounds of light aircraft with zero glide ability over urban areas. Probably because they know the answer and it kills the buzz.