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A comment on Lilium – Electric vertical take-⁠off and landing jet. Parent comment

Re:Lilium – Electric vertical take-⁠off and landing jet by stcredzero on Friday April 21, 2017 @04:37PM (#14169229)
you have the added weight of a combustion engine and it's fuel as well

Note I said drop pod.

The whole appeal of electric motors is that they are basically solid state.

I think beamed power has a lot of potential for electric jets. It's sort of magic. You get to ditch the heavy fuel tanks/batteries, and you still get the benefits of low maintenance costs for electric motors.

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Re:Lilium – Electric vertical take-⁠off and landing jet by jacquesm on Friday April 21, 2017 @06:30PM (#14169929)
> It's sort of magic.

It's not sort of magic, it would be actual magic.

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Re:Lilium – Electric vertical take-⁠off and landing jet by pdelbarba on Friday April 21, 2017 @05:03PM (#14169417)
Even still, you would need to have the thrust to lift it in addition to your regular operating equipment and some way for it to be recovered (more weight, complexity, operating and upfront cost)

I'll pass on sitting in the tiny plane with a 100kw laser pointed at it.

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Re:Lilium – Electric vertical take-⁠off and landing jet by jacquesm on Friday April 21, 2017 @08:07PM (#14170404)
> I'll pass on sitting in the tiny plane with a 100kw laser pointed at it.

Now that's one place where a tinfoil hat might come in really handy.

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Re:Lilium – Electric vertical take-⁠off and landing jet by yownie on Friday April 21, 2017 @09:34PM (#14170670)
Perhaps Magnet bearing mounted flywheel as your kinetic energy storage would be better and lighter than battery power?
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