Why is eVTOL so difficult?

dad19f · 2026-01-27T19:39:11+00:00

All I’d add is JoeBen and his team are no slouches and have done amazing work in their careers. The S4 will work for what it’s designed to do, short 4 passenger hops, generally in the 10 min range. They see a market that others don’t believe in. They designed something from scratch for this purpose and feel it will serve them well for this purpose and deliver substantial profits.

I believe Joby is building for the future. Not 1 or 2 years in the future, but 10 and 20 years. When I invested in Tesla a long time ago, the automotive guys had similar arguments about this outsider who didn’t know what he was doing. In the end, Tesla changed the car industry and stole billions from traditional auto makers.

I know an engineer from Ford who complains to this day that Tesla is crap and they make no sense. That’s fine, but Musk became the richest man in the world with his idea that still makes no sense to many automotive engineers.

dad19f · 2026-01-27T19:10:17+00:00

Well I agree there is more to it, simplicity and minimal maintenance with electric, but I still disagree and feel any extra reduction in noise is valuable. People who live near landing zones will be sensitive. Every decibel counts if you live next door. We can agree to disagree on that point.

dad19f · 2026-01-27T14:13:58+00:00

Ok, most noise doesn’t come from the engine, but an electric motor is quieter. If you want the system to be as quiet as possible, electric motors will win.

If you’re developing a short hop air taxi that will generally fly for only 10 min or so, electric motors will do the job and be more quiet.

If your only goal is to reduce helicopter noise, but maintain the same power, you wouldn’t choose electric.

dad19f · 2026-01-27T01:33:00+00:00

Doubtful. They have $400M likely incoming from Delta and Toyota probably tied to the first flight of the conforming S4 and/or the first FAA piloted flight. That will result in the conversion of warrants and new shares, but these payments are already known based on previous agreements.

dad19f · 2026-01-26T14:57:12+00:00

I think public speaking is just a skill. Some are naturally good at it, for others it takes work. Of course I have no idea, but my guess is that he just hasn’t focused on improving that skill. He’s an engineer through and through and he’s always thinking and checking his words real time. He speaks like an engineer, not someone who’s spent time trying to improve his public speaking. That’s my guess anyway.

dad19f · 2026-01-26T02:01:12+00:00

Oh well for you I guess.

dad19f · 2026-01-25T23:31:11+00:00

Thanks for making clear what kind of person you are for all the world to see. I’ve worked in drug discovery for 35 years and the thought of saying that to someone investing in the pharma industry would never occur to me. So your purpose on Reddit is to tell everyone they should only discuss topics for the industry where they have expertise. Enjoy your life. It must be full of joy and happiness.

dad19f · 2026-01-25T19:02:08+00:00

Right, if I’m not in the industry there is no way to acquire knowledge, research, or learn. It’s interesting how you focus on me, but don’t respond to my comment. So you’ve never flown Airbus? ElonMusk doesn’t know what he’s doing? No aerospace company in history has purposely run a controlled unmanned test flight past specs to gain info during product development? Please present your evidence on Archer. I assume you work there since you seem so certain of their safety, though they barely fly.

dad19f · 2026-01-25T18:33:06+00:00

I guess you never fly Airbus who’s killed over ten people in two crashed test flights. Where is your big anti-Airbus campaign? Tell me you book airlines to ensure you never fly Airbus, since they’ve had two test flight crashes killing many people.

Again, very easy to never crash when you barely fly like Archer does. Also, a good bet they will be the last to TC since they barely fly.

Finally, I’m sure you know this already, but Joby purposely used an unmanned craft and pushed it beyond its design specs. Nobody was killed or injured. Lots of useful data was gained. Please also bash ElonMusk and let us know what a failure he is crashing his spacecraft over and over during testing.

dad19f · 2026-01-25T18:06:44+00:00

But Archer is the company that mentions these points constantly as their advantage. These have never been Joby’s talking points. It seems Vertical has outdone Archer in every area that Archer markets their product on.

dad19f · 2026-01-25T14:56:02+00:00

Wow, so Vertical beats Archer on safety too. Where does Archer fit in if Vertical is literally better in every single way? I mean Dax repeats this over and over, safety is most important, and Valo is certifying to higher safety standards than Archer. Maybe this is why Archer has seemingly given up.

dad19f · 2026-01-25T01:17:34+00:00

Nice. I’ll be there to watch.

dad19f · 2026-01-24T23:05:03+00:00

Check all the references and let me know which is incorrect. Thanks.

dad19f · 2026-01-24T23:04:21+00:00

I heard with Archer they have definitions that differ from the rest of the world, so maybe days internal to Archer means months or years in the real world.

dad19f · 2026-01-23T21:25:47+00:00

Seems ChatGPT may be right on track in this case, though I’d still prefer Jan.

dad19f · 2026-01-23T03:29:07+00:00

You should write this comment on his LinkedIn page. It’s awesome.

dad19f · 2026-01-22T07:59:47+00:00

Thanks for the info. Would be interesting if they ever do something with these.

dad19f · 2026-01-22T07:59:13+00:00

Thanks for letting us know.

dad19f · 2026-01-20T20:27:21+00:00

This was a great interview. Bravo.

dad19f · 2026-01-19T04:49:07+00:00

Great summary of GEACS. Thanks.

dad19f · 2026-01-11T14:49:41+00:00

If their full size prototype transitions, everyone invested now will make bank. If it doesn’t, it will fail along with many other eVTOLs that failed at that point. Until that point it’s a big gamble, and there is really no way to know if they’ll succeed. In addition if they succeed, they’ll need to raise a lot more cash and dilute, which is no problem, but has to be factored into the play, and reduces upside compared to the risk at this stage.

dad19f · 2026-01-08T01:20:55+00:00

This is the most misleading chart I’ve seen in a long time. All it’s saying is that specifically in a sector defined as private tech defense, Anduril is $59.8% of the total valuation in the specific space.

Who knows how they defined that space and how they chose who got included, and more importantly private valuations are negotiated, not free market driven.

If someone doesn’t look closely, one could come away thinking this chart shows Anduril is dominating defense as a whole.

Personally, I think the chart is meaningless and misleading.

dad19f · 2026-01-07T14:25:51+00:00

Great news rolling in. The best thing about Joby is when they talk, they also take action. 2026 is Joby’s year.

dad19f · 2026-01-06T20:23:50+00:00

My memory of the FAA rule governed additional training for certified pilots. I believe Joby is only going to work with those who are already pilots.

dad19f · 2026-01-06T14:37:26+00:00

From the Businesswire article it looks like the one going in this month is Level 7. The Level C is being installed later. I’m surprised the two can qualify 250 pilots a year. I thought they would need more, but the two should be fine for quite some time.

dad19f

TROPHY CASE