First electric passenger plane lands at JFK in milestone flight. Travels 110 km costing $8 in fuel.
A historic electric airplane flight landed at JFK with passengers, marking a milestone as Beta Technologies demonstrates the practicality and efficiency of electric air travel.
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It's real goofy-lookin'.
I can't imagine it's a lift-versus-speed thing. Like how human-powered aircraft have the longest and skinniest wings possible.
Was it shaped that way just to do the quadcopter thing, which they've apparently not used here? I feel like you could just extend the nose so the wings are in the middle, and have a plane that's still plane-shaped.
Does say that vertical takeoff is part of the plan. Probably worth an awkward looking plane if the goal is to eliminate the need for infrastructure like modern airports.
Reminds me a lot of a Cessna Mixmaster. No front propeller, and the horizontal tail attaches to the engine cowling rather than crossing behind the propeller.
My instinct would be to go full Rutan, build a canard. If we're going with a single engine pusher. No need for the tail booms, everything produces lift, the main problem is flaps really aren't a thing with canards, you land them clean. But, if you're going to bolt VTOL to it somehow, who cares?
There's a thin line between "that looks kind of silly" and "it worked in Kerbal Space Program."
I mean, my vision is basically an electric Velocity.