O.K. when do these \"magic\" battery\'s come into being? I don\'t care how \"efferent\" they claim to be but if the range or practicality isn\'t there then what good is it? I\'m all for electric\'s but they\'re going to have to stop thinking in terms of battery\'s! Fuel cells or some other means of making electricity, but I fear battery\'s are never going to cut it.

Dropping in a hydrogen fuel cell should take care of the range anxiety.

OK, so they opted for L-ion rather than L-polymer power cells (and in the air, I would too) but the side pods have to go. They have to integrate the batteries into the landing gear and body of this aircraft. Lithium polymer would allow for a shape that would mirror the aerodynamic (if you can call it that) shape of the bubble.
What they will find out is that safe, long operating time, rechargeable battery power is along way off. So, they\'ll want to use a smaller, purpose built turbine (probably 75kW) and several battery pods spaced around the copter for weight distribution. When battery power drops to 40%, the turbine activates and recharges the batteries in about 20 minutes. Four charges per tank of fuel and you have much better overall air time. If the batteries fail (partially or fully), the turbine could be shunted directly to the electric motor for as along as remaining fuel lasts. Best of both worlds.

I like this smart earth-friendly design. However, we are prisoners of past if the vehicle power source shaft- accelerator struggles with transmission reduced speed function at the process of movement. As result the energy consumption up to 80% is the additional heat of engine or motor.
We must change mind to ignore saving energy by levers as is the hard gears since the gas or magnetic field too slowly creates the higher torques and requires much increased powers.
The revolutionary patented methods create above 1,000 manual and/or automatic gearbox apparatus-accelerator designs that profitably for both manufactures and customers.
Each design comprising the least numbers of gears could eliminate the function of acceleration system so that power source has only idle speed that creates condition dramatically to save energy and emission of modernized vehicles based on land, water and air, heavy-duty equipment, etc. There is brand new business which will grow when economy goes down.

Whilst not being a chopper pilot I can not understand why manufacturers dont adopt the \"Coaxial\" rotor concept like the Russians favor. Amongst the advantages are very low vaibration smoother ride & the tail rotor can be dispensed with. AH well change is very slow they say!!.
Cheers Kiwi

I drive my EV\'s every day but this won\'t fly as they say. The eff is from energy on the ground vs in the air where it counts.
There are batteries like Alum or Zinc/air that can do the job, probably 1 hrs worth but even that is not very useful. A Lithium air if ever done could be 5 x\'s as long range but that is probably a decade away.
In aircraft energy capacity rules and liquid fuels are the way to go.
Maybe of they drop the weight by using composites, use 2 larger counter rotating rotors which are about 20% more eff than their system with the hub motors, a good idea, this might work with the alum or zinc air batteries.

It\'s good to see this in the making. In the model world, electrics are surpassing nitro (gas) models in performance. I have an electric model helicopter and car and (I\'m told) the car is faster than any off the shelf nitro model, over 70 mph! A Traxxus Rustler VXL if anyone is interested. It\'s truly insane to drive! Consant wheelstands! And goes for 15 minutes on a charge, so does the heli.
I think there\'s a future in this technology, there\'s a huge focus on battery technology as the world shifts to electric everything and away from fossil fuels. It\'s all in the Lithium based batteries and brushless motors these days. Lithium will be the new \"crude\".

I\'m sorry, but the only way that electric aircraft will work is cellularly. Energy beamed to the flying electric aircraft from the ground (or the sun) will make it happen. That way, energy\'s true weight will be utilized. Imagine if we had to carry batteries from power stations to cities? Well, battery-powered aircraft is an idea just as strange.

Lol, Lithium is ALREADY the new crude. That\'s another reason for the Afghan war! (check their deposits) But the heli kicks ass, I wonder (like Muraculous) about a turbine to boost the range. Suppose it wouldn\'t be much of a study then, lol. Top effort lads

In the conventional helicopters, power transmission system takes the engine output (torque at a certain angular velocity) and transfers it to the rotors at another angular velocity and torque (main and tail rotor gear boxes). The company is looking for design that will run two electric motors(main rotor and tail rotor). The significant improvement here is that the quantity of the moving parts is reduced which increases the system reliability; the propulsion efficiency increase of 300% from baseline is claimed.