In honor of today being the 120th anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ first flight…
(the flood, presumably caused by climate change, is in Kenya)
Orville lived to 1948, long enough to see various iterations of rotary-wing flight (and a lot of patent litigation).
Related: Hill Helicopter seems to be making progress on their sleek $760k HX50 with 5 seats + 140kts + FADEC turbine + digital cockpit + autopilot. They’ve got fully assembled fuselage, but haven’t yet fired up the new engine:
https://youtu.be/zPtgxj1Yu-s?t=421
Hill Helicopter is thus in the same situation as Eclipse was. Their design and cost advantage depends on an innovative new engine, but the new engine isn’t working. (Eclipse ultimately switched to a conventional, though small, turbojet engine. The cost skyrocketed and the range plummeted.)