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Comment by pritovido | Hacker News Reader

I believe they will be use for the same thing helicopters are used today:

1-Emergencies and organs transplant. No pilot means more carry load in volume and weight.

2.As a status symbol for top of the ladder executives and polititians. They will go from the top of skyscrapers to their mansions just looking down of those that waste their time in car jams.

I see this being useful for short distance travel as well, but not that much in cities, but outside them.

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It's still a plane, it has no VTOL capability. It cannot be used for what helicopters are used today.

the parent of your comment is referring to the phrase “urban air mobility market”, which the X-57 PR video demonstrates as being small aircraft, a few of which were VTOL craft -- not the X57 itself.

The PR video was basically hinting at the X57 being a technology demonstrator which will showcase techs (like electric propulsion) that the so-called “urban air mobility market” can then take off running with.

> "It's still a plane, it has no VTOL capability. It cannot be used for what helicopters are used today."

This one, yes. But there are many "urban transport" VTOL electric aircraft in development. The idea is to combine the utility of a helicopter with the efficiency of a fixed-wing, while adding the environmental, reliability, and O&M cost benefits of electric.

I believe that, in the coming years and decades, electric VTOL aircraft will replace traditional helicopters for many applications.

Ha. Organ transplants. Only on TV. My sister runs organs as a volunteer. Commercial flights, no special consideration.

Ya, I did a ride along with the highway patrol once. 1 hour of that shift was driving to the far end of our coverage area and waiting for another car. Then blazing down the freeway in the opposite direction at 3am at top speed on what they call a "blood run" (organ in a cooler in the trunk). There are no commercial flights at this time of day and the organ was moving about 5 hours by car. This would have been much safer and faster if it were done by helicopter or small plane, but I guess if the car works then they don't have to use aircraft.

Completely depends on the organ. Kidneys can survive outside the body for 1-2 days, while heart and lungs only survive 4-6 hours and are typically transported via ground or air ambulance, depending on distance.

Source: https://www.organdonor.gov/about/process/matching.html#expan...

Actually a company called FlyBlade does helicopter organ transplants. You should tell your sister to reach out to them.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/blade-nyu-langone-transp...

Unless they are willing to do it for free, I don't think their sister who already does volunteer work can consider it.

And at a large Midwest hospital. But with the advent of professional "Hospital Administrators" with a degree and everything, hospitals become a business. Anything they can get for free, they do.

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