A rotary wing aircraft comprising a fuselage, a cabin volume enclosed by the fuselage, a main rotor arranged above the fuselage, a tail rotor mounted on a tail, the tail being attached to a rear part of the fuselage supporting the tail at its rear end, whereas the tail includes two beam boom elements, one element extending at the port side and the other element extending at the starboard side of the rotary wing aircraft, the front root end of each element being hinged to the corresponding lateral side of the fuselage, and both elements being canted with respect to the longitudinal axis of the rotary wing aircraft so as to be interconnected to each other at the rear portion of the tail.

An assembly is provided for a rotorcraft. This rotorcraft assembly includes a fuselage, a tail structure, an air system and a plurality of tail rotors. The tail structure is configured as or otherwise includes a tail boom. The tail boom projects longitudinally along a centerline out from the fuselage to a distal end. The air system includes an air flowpath. The air flowpath passes from the fuselage into the tail boom and extends longitudinally within the tail boom towards the distal end. The tail rotors are connected to the tail structure at the distal end.

A first power source includes a high discharge rate battery and a second power source includes a high energy battery. An electronically activated switch switches between the first power source and the second power source in response to a control signal from a power controller. If the electronically activated switch fails, it fails with one of the first power source and the second power source in an open circuit position and with the other one of the first power source and the second power source in a closed circuit position. The power controller generates the control signal, including by: during a vertical landing associated with a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) vehicle, generating the control signal to switch from the high energy battery to the high discharge rate battery independent of a measured current.