[tekacs]

... air traffic jams? The air is _much_ bigger than the corresponding ground.

Certainly there'd be density _at_ take-off and landing, but even that's manageable by having e.g. arrival/departure locations at multiple heights.

It also seems vanishingly unlikely (at this point) that we'd have EVTOL that's not fully autonomous, further reducing the odds of this - ~perfect and coordinated driving, as well as foreknowledge of what's happening between you and the arrival location drastically reduces traffic.

[dmbche]

Do you know how planes land at an airport? They circle waiting for their turn. Why would that problem vanish?

[tekacs]

... because the entire point of VTOL (which is what the parent commentary was about) is that you can take off and land vertically and therefore don't need one of a few, scarce, super-long runways? ... and the waiting you're talking about is entirely because of those?

On top of that, small VTOL craft that can hover and would be at lower speeds closer in (esp. autonomously flown) would just need less mutual clearance compared to jets, which also have an altitude band they have to stay in, as well as no ability to slow to a crawl and coordinate finely.

[dmbche]

Gotcha, just spitballing - my mistake taking it seriously

[tekacs]

You asked me why the problem of circling waiting for your turn would vanish when using VTOL aircraft. I don't know how to respond to that with anything other than, "That's the entire point of VTOL. It doesn't need one of those scarce runways that planes circle waiting for.".

[dmbche]

That's fine sir, you don't need to know everything about a subject to spitball. On you go

[tekacs]

My bad! You do list that you're an aeronautics person. I would genuinely genuinely love to understand what I'm missing – I'm sure there's some context here that I'm lacking!