A helicopter needs 3-5x the power of a fixed-wing aircraft to hover the same weight, because it has to generate all its lift from spinning blades while also fighting induced drag.
Drones face the same math at smaller scale, which is why even the best ones manage maybe thirty to forty-five minutes of flight time before the battery is spent.
The #Tesla Roadster's cold-gas system is the extreme case of this problem. It carries its entire energy supply as compressed air, so the more it weighs and the higher it goes, the less reserve it has left, and there is no way to stretch that budget without changing the technology itself.
Wings are the cheat code. They let the air do the lifting for free once you are moving.
quotingThe Tesla Roadster demo used liquid gas thrusters to do controlled hops, fall-safe lands, and in-air orientation control.
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