As successful as the Rolls-Royce name has been in luxury cars, it's been far bigger in aeronautics. The two are very separate companies at this point – the car company employs some 1,300 people, but it's absolutely dwarfed by the aircraft motor business, which employs around 50,000. So when these guys announce a four- to five-passenger hybrid electric/turbine VTOL aircraft concept with a 250-mph top speed and a 500-mile range, it's worth listening.
Presented at this year's Farnborough International Airshow, the EVTOL concept uses six electric rotors for vertical takeoff and landing, giving it access to helipads and other small landing zones. The props are designed to minimize noise, allowing it to operate over cities without as much disruption as a helicopter.
Once aloft and moving forward, the main wing and tail fins tilt fully forward, enabling high-efficiency winged flight and a top speed around 250 mph (402 km/h). The props on the main wing fold away during winged flight, further reducing drag and increasing the efficiency of the design in the air.
Rather than a massive battery, the EVTOL uses a smaller one, which would be charged by an efficient gas turbine generator to enable a huge 500-mile (805-km) range, far further than fully electric tilt-wing designs can manage at this point.
Rolls-Royce says this machine could be in production as soon as "the early to mid 2020s, provided that a viable commercial model for its introduction can be created."
While this concept uses an M250 gas turbine and leverages the company's rich history of aircraft engine design, it's clear that Rolls-Royce sees a fully electric powertrain taking over somewhere in the future.
Tilt-wing electric-propulsion VTOL aircraft are popping up all over the place at the moment, so there's nothing particularly new or radical about this design, except the long-range hybrid powertrain and the fact that, rather than a Silicon Valley startup, it's being pushed by an established aerospace company that does US$21.5 billion dollars worth of business a year instead of. One to keep an eye on.
Source: Rolls-Royce
In reality this craft is merely the outcome of a logical engineering study, rather than the often observed study in hype and wishful thinking....
BTW, we are not any closer to the ubiquitous "flying car" because; cars aren't meant to fly, and aircraft can't survive a fenderbender unscathed, mutially exclusive operating conditions (the closest we come with successful designs are flying boats (floating airplanes) and these too aren't built to survive a crash while waterborne.....
Side windows look sufficient to see how close to the ground below you are for landing, i do agree that forward vision can be improved by adding a front window yes. but regardless, with those tweaks this looks like a winner with full tilt on the wings.
For a long term commercial goal/view
They would have to make it at least a 2 seater though, they have to make versions that can be used as taxi's to make this become mainstream on a worldwide scale, as many or most people (not myself i'd love to fly it) but the majority of average citizens out there would want someone to transport them in these vtol's not fly themselves.
Of course 500miles is viable, they are using a turbine to extend the flight.
This is not a helicopter, that's why it can go faster.
Yes it will take some time to get regulations in place however these concepts and the technology is really growing at a rapid pace to the point where they simply will have no choice but to speed up the regulations to cater for this revolution about to take place.