[alabut]

Yeah, the reality check in that video was eye opening. Clearly it’s a deliberate strategy to roll these things out at flight schools at first, so they’re always circling within landing range.

Electric planes will definitely graduate to short hop commutes eventually though and not just be niche training vehicles, especially when you consider how much safer they are than jet engines: they have way less moving parts, require less maintenance, and most importantly, they don’t stress the airframe nearly as much.

And that’s just with current airplane designs retrofitted for electric (which is essentially what these training planes are) instead of the upcoming designs that are built with many small electric motors and not the giant jet engines.

Lilium is an example of the new style of electric plane, with motors distributed through the wing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohig71bwRUE

[psergeant]

Hopefully they’ll be quieter, too; noise pollution from planes is a big deal, and avoiding it creates congestion and all sorts of other costs

[alabut]

Yep, and quiet electric motors is why air taxis could be a real thing again in major cities. E.g. Uber partnered with NASA to try to bring them to Los Angeles before the 2028 Olympics, with 18 heliports scattered around the county.