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A comment on Lilium achieves first main wing transition for all-electric aircraft [video]. Parent comment

Re:Lilium achieves first main wing transition for all-electr... by bradknowles on Sunday June 12, 2022 @09:08PM (#31719861)
So, terminal velocity of a relatively aerodynamic shape (like a bullet falling, or a skydiver who is head down and pulled their arms in) is about 200mph, according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminal_velocity

How many SUVs do you know of that are crashing into houses at 200mph?

Also, what is the relative mass of the electric airplane with a bunch of lithium batteries, versus the SUV?

What parts of the house might be hit by a falling airplane, versus an SUV crashing into the house from the road?

What is the fire risk of a bunch of lithium batteries having fallen out of the sky, versus the SUV crashing into the house?

There's lots of factors to be considered here, but overall I'd say there's a lot more risk of damage, injury, and death with the falling electric airplane than with the SUV.

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Re:Lilium achieves first main wing transition for all-electr... by prvit on Monday June 13, 2022 @07:36AM (#31724006)
Why focus on houses? SUVs drive into ground level shops and restaurants every single day. Places which tend to exists at ground level for accessibility reasons, and contain much more people than your average house.

https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/driver-crashes-through-gas-...

https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/car-into-kohls

https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/vehicle-careens-into...

https://turnto10.com/amp/news/local/massachusetts-wrentham-v...

https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/video-shows-suv-crashing...

https://abcnews.go.com/US/dead-hospitalized-car-plows-dc-res...

https://www.gainsberglaw.com/blog/cars-crash-into-buildings-...

I could find thousands of these.

An airplane falling from the sky is far less likely to hit anyone than a car suddenly accelerating into a store because the driver is flooring the accelerator instead of the brake. These incidents are so common that they have an extensive wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudden_unintended_acceleration

You can find some numbers at https://www.storefrontsafety.org/statistics.html They claim this happens around 60 times a day.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Lilium achieves first main wing transition for all-electr... by Deritio on Monday June 13, 2022 @08:44AM (#31724713)
And you think that having the same amount of air taxies in the air that. SUVs on the street would still make the SUVs look bad?

Again at least with streets I know that an SUV will only crash close to streets with an air taxi it could crash everywhere.

Kindergarden? Yes.

Can we protect a kindergarden from an accidental SUV acceleration? Of course we can. Easy.

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Re:Lilium achieves first main wing transition for all-electr... by prvit on Monday June 13, 2022 @11:27AM (#31726937)
> And you think that having the same amount of air taxies in the air that. SUVs on the street would still make the SUVs look bad?

Yes of course, per passenger mile SUVs are far more likely to drive into a building than an air taxi is to fall out of the sky.

> Can we protect a kindergarden from an accidental SUV acceleration? Of course we can. Easy.

But we don’t.

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Re:Lilium achieves first main wing transition for all-electr... by bradknowles on Monday June 13, 2022 @08:04PM (#31733225)
It could be any structure, but the probability is that it will be a house or other type of housing. There are a lot more residential buildings than commercial.
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