My guess is that we don’t have passenger or cargo VTOL airplanes because they would use more energy than the airplanes we use now.
It can be worth the extra energy cost in warplanes since it allows the warplanes to operate from ships smaller than the US’s supercarriers and to keep on operating despite the common military tactic of destroying the enemy’s runways.
Why do I guess that VTOLs would use more energy? (1) Because hovering expends energy at a higher rate than normal flying. (2) Because the thrust-to-weight ratio of a modern airliner is about .25 and of course to hover you need to get that above 1, which means more powerful gas-turbine engines, which means heavier gas-turbine engines, which means the plane gets heavier and consequently less energy efficient.
Being able to land airplanes outside of formal airports would be valuable for civilian aircraft as well. I would however expect that you can’t legally do that with VTOL airplanes in most Western countries.
My guess is that we don’t have passenger or cargo VTOL airplanes because they would use more energy than the airplanes we use now.
It can be worth the extra energy cost in warplanes since it allows the warplanes to operate from ships smaller than the US’s supercarriers and to keep on operating despite the common military tactic of destroying the enemy’s runways.
Why do I guess that VTOLs would use more energy? (1) Because hovering expends energy at a higher rate than normal flying. (2) Because the thrust-to-weight ratio of a modern airliner is about .25 and of course to hover you need to get that above 1, which means more powerful gas-turbine engines, which means heavier gas-turbine engines, which means the plane gets heavier and consequently less energy efficient.
Being able to land airplanes outside of formal airports would be valuable for civilian aircraft as well. I would however expect that you can’t legally do that with VTOL airplanes in most Western countries.