They've demonstrated a lightweight drone, basically, but the physics of scaling to something with the performance they aspire to doesn't make sense. My suspicion is heightened by their calling a bunch of ducted electric fans a "jet." My skepticism is shared by professionals (BTW, my own background is a physics PhD plus 3 years spent as an aerospace engineering major before I switched to physics). As an expert in the Wired story says:
“I’d say that’s impossible off the top of my head,” says Richard Pat Anderson, who runs the Flight Research Center at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and is developing his own vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. “They’re definitely exceeding some fundamental math.”
The fact that you can make something like that fly, for a little while at least, and especially with no load, is unremarkable. The assertion that they've "solved" all the main problems because they did a test flight is rubbish. The challenges are the combination of speed and range, especially with a load. They assert they will develop an ability to fly 190 miles at 190 MPH. This is a vastly harder problem than getting an electric car to go 300 miles at 65 MPH. The kind of projection they make is only conceivable if there is a truly mind-boggling breakthrough in battery technology. And if the idea is a fleet of instantly-dispatchable air taxis, another challenge is the huge fraction of time they'd likely spent sitting around charging (unless they have a battery-swap scheme in mind).
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