I was very pleased to read the Commentary section of the September/October issue of Vertiflite, which focused on the EASA Special Conditions for small category VTOL aircraft. Since retiring from Leonardo Helicopters in 2016, I have tried to keep abreast of developments in this exciting new field of aeronautical engineering while also trying hard to keep the "skeptic dragon" living in my head at bay. This is quite hard to do when I try to match viable performance and operational safety with some of the configurations seemingly being created with serious intent. In particular the lack of airworthiness codes that seem to suit these configurations has been a source-of intrigue for me with regard to how each might actually be formally certified as airworthy. Without such certification the application of an eVTOL craft will be sorely limited, which would be a sorry outcome for such a promising technology. Then there is the thorny and equally vital issue of ATC, which I understand the likes of Uber and Google are working hard to resolve, though I am not aware of concrete developments in these matters.
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