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Re:The Lilium Jet by UncleOxidant on Tuesday October 04, 2022 @05:39PM (#33087374)
But then they would've been using many smaller ICE or jet engines already to get redundancy. I suspect the reason is that it's easier to get that kind of redundancy with electric motors - they're more compact, lighter weight, less overhead for each.
Re:The Lilium Jet by jasonwatkinspdx on Tuesday October 04, 2022 @08:16PM (#33089161)
We do. It wasn't until the 80s that twin engine airliners were certified for long flights. Before then it was 3 or 4 engine only. It took a lot of effort to get jet engines that reliable too.

Single vs dual engine helicopter is a big safety distinction. There's heavy lift and military helicopters with 3 engines.