Are eVTOLs the “mother of all aerospace bubbles”? • Hacker News Board

Re: Are eVTOLs the “mother of all aerospace bubbles”?

#11

Post by fulafel » Wed, Feb 09, 2022, 7:29 AM UTC

dmitrygr wrote: post #3

Atheros wrote: post #2

The real money maker here will be the heliports if they're privately owned. Because you own the bottleneck, you run the auction to determine who gets to take off and land. If the cost of the vehicles drops, more of the money that end users are willing to pay ends up in your pocket. Vehicle manufactures will be in a cut-throat race to reduce costs but ticket prices would never drop because $1 saved in vehicle cost wou…

> work extremely well as demonstrated by radio frequency spectrum You are definitely not a USA resident! Thanks to those auctions we have an oligopoly of carriers who charge per GB like it is a gallon on Nobel Prize winners' sperm, while delivering service that compares unfavourably with a 56K modem on a bad line.

They can be bungled, but they demonstrably can be made work, a bit like aircraft...

(Though there is oddly little critique about the tight control of airwaves, and having only microscopic slices for free individual use like wifi and p2p links)

Re: Are eVTOLs the “mother of all aerospace bubbles”?

#12

Post by Stevvo » Wed, Feb 09, 2022, 10:50 AM UTC

Atheros wrote: post #2

The real money maker here will be the heliports if they're privately owned. Because you own the bottleneck, you run the auction to determine who gets to take off and land. If the cost of the vehicles drops, more of the money that end users are willing to pay ends up in your pocket. Vehicle manufactures will be in a cut-throat race to reduce costs but ticket prices would never drop because $1 saved in vehicle cost wou…

In most of the US opening a heliport is incredibly simple; take your parking lot or other land and paint some markings on the ground. Shoot off a letter to the FAA. Done.

That said, rotor-craft are not even required to land at a heliport; they can land anywhere that is safe unless doing so is trespassing or forbidden by a law.

A license auction would only restrict access and stifle competition.

Re: Are eVTOLs the “mother of all aerospace bubbles”?

#13

Post by fransje26 » Wed, Feb 09, 2022, 11:59 AM UTC

Terry_Roll wrote: post #5

Atheros wrote: post #2

The real money maker here will be the heliports if they're privately owned. Because you own the bottleneck, you run the auction to determine who gets to take off and land. If the cost of the vehicles drops, more of the money that end users are willing to pay ends up in your pocket. Vehicle manufactures will be in a cut-throat race to reduce costs but ticket prices would never drop because $1 saved in vehicle cost wou…

You'll find somepeople in Govt will get bought and then the goal posts will be moved. Its std democratic practice.

No post body was provided.

Re: Are eVTOLs the “mother of all aerospace bubbles”?

#14

Post by jquast » Wed, Feb 09, 2022, 2:01 PM UTC

oceanplexian wrote: post #6

eVTOLs are just helicopters powered by electricity. They are still susceptible to all the same things that cause accidents with any other type of aircraft. Imagine a loud drone but scale it up 100x and then picture thousands of these flying over city streets. It's insane and impractical.

Hard disagree. Helicopters are much less safe and not have redundant batteries or propellers. Joby recently provided acoustic results with NASA that show magnitudes less dB, you can look it up and hear for yourself. Having witnessed hundreds of Joby flights I can say from experience that it doesn’t seem any louder than a distant vacuum cleaner, I could hold conversations nearby without strain. Living by a highway with motorcycles was worse. I learned a lot about aviation lately and having also been in a helicopter and I sometimes think back that it was a stupid risk to take without having my affairs in order, never mind the aviation fuel, what disgusting fumes!