For the 'ZFW' of an eVTOL could be considered to be its weight in the absence of batteries, given that an unfuelled electrical drone weighs exactly the same as a fuelled. I would say that this affords us a deal of slack when it comes to listing that 'zero-fuel weight'.
And just one more way in which the law ~ like the rest of us ~ never sees the future coming until such time as it is practically upon us.
I've a meeting to discuss a TV doc on this emergent tech, and this is one of the things I shall point out.
That at one point it seems stuff is never going to happen, and next moment it's all around us and we actually forget that we ever did question whether it ever would.
Two examples from my own (now overly extended) life, in shape of video calls and flat-screens.
The former technology dates back to Germany of the 1930s and was ever promised afterward, but invariably rolled over until Skype happened, and then everyone was at it.
And regards flat-screen TVs, one day you walk into a department store like John Lewis ~ and I'm profiling myself here ~ and they've refused to stock anything but flat-screen TVs.
I have a horrible feeling that any time soon we'll all be flying around in electrical vehicles, in whose history I shall appear as a mere footnote.
Oh tempora, o mores!
