Mon Jun 11, 2018 3:10 pm
#1617107
When a typical medium scale, new design, conventional helicopter costs half a billion or so US dollars to develop and certify, can't see too many of the 100+ eVTOL developments/designs making it to final production when the certification criteria are only just evolving now. Maybe just five of those might get to the end game - with backing from the big boys like Boeing, Airbus, Lockheed etc. and due to those development/certifications costs, the cost per unit will be huge if those non-recurring costs are amortised over a relatively small production run with a long, long return on the investment. In theory the manufacturing costs for say the composite structures, the motors, the batteries, should be much less than a conventional 'corporate' turbine heliciopter today, but you can't escape the hideous up-front investment and all the testing and flight proving etc. eSTOL fixed wing light aircraft for passenger transport (as opposed to leisure flying) will be cheaper than the eVTOL 'drones' to develop but still, certification will be a huge pain in the proverbial.