By Bjorn Fehrm
November 18, 2022, ©. Leeham Information: Within the feedback to final week’s Nook, there have been requests for a comparability with a helicopter re. Sustainability (kWh/km). Right here you go.
I additionally threw in a value of operations dialogue, because the helicopter is the current different to an eVTOL for city-to-airport air transports.
Determine 1. The Robinson R66 five-seat helicopter. Supply: Wikipedia.
eVTOL versus helicopter
We evaluate the consultant eVTOL we’ve mentioned during the last weeks with probably the most offered helicopter, the Robinson R44, and its bigger sister, the R66. The R44 has offered over 6,000 models and the R66 over 1,000.
The R44 is motored by a Lycoming IO540 183kW piston engine and carries a pilot and three passengers, the R66 by a 200kW Rolls-Royce RR300 gasoline turbine. It takes a pilot and 4 passengers.
Determine 2. The Robison R44 four-seat helicopter. Supply: Robinson Helicopter Co.
Cruise velocity for each is 110kts, which on the quick hop we analyze, retains the journey instances inside minutes of the eVTOL. The R44 can fly for 1.1 hours with a full load, the R66 2.0 hours, and our eVTOL 40 minutes (regular flight till vitality is completed, no reserves).
Working prices
In our evaluation in Half 44P, we come to a 25-mile journey price for the eVTOL of round $220, flying a mission from a metropolis middle to a close-by airport. The identical journey price for the R44 can be $140 and the R66 $200. It contains the identical touchdown and ATC charges for all three.
The charging station charges on the heliport and airport (on high of vitality price) are distinctive to the eVTOL. The helicopters pay for the fueling functionality and gasoline, which for the R44 is AVGAS; the R66 runs on Jet-A1.
Power consumption
We had a worth of 0.4kWh/km per passenger for our eVTOL after we assumed a mean of two.3 passengers. If we set the identical common passenger load for the helicopters, we land at 1.7kWh/km and passenger for the R44 and a couple of.6 kWh/km for the R66.
Conclusion
Regardless of the a lot increased vitality consumption, the working prices for the helicopters are decrease, even with an assumed gasoline worth of $6 per US Gallon.
Half is a a lot decrease capital price as an R44 prices $0.5m and an R66 $1m. We’ve got assumed our capital price for the eVTOL is double the R66. These are mature prices which are reached when the manufacturing has reached 1,000 models or extra.
The issue for the eVTOL trade is that the primary lots of off the manufacturing line price extra to provide than these gross sales costs.
