[HN Gopher] Toroidal propellers turn your drones and boats into ...
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Toroidal propellers turn your drones and boats into noiseless
machines
Author : danboarder
Score : 78 points
Date : 2023-01-29 18:47 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.designboom.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.designboom.com)
| mkl wrote:
| Related discussion from a couple of months ago:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33949895 (156 comments).
| kibwen wrote:
| That was only for the boat prop design, this is the first I've
| seen of the infinity propellers for drones, which at least look
| extremely cool.
| jbay808 wrote:
| From that article:
|
| > Greg reasoned that if he could reduce or even eliminate
| these tip vortices, it should lead to a quieter, more
| efficient drone. His light bulb moment came on a dog walk
| when the idea of a tipless blade, that loops round to rejoin
| the propeller hub like a strip of twisted ribbon, first
| popped into his head.
|
| > It took a further seven years of intensive research and
| development, substantial investment, 23 worldwide patents and
| a switch in focus from drones to boats before Sharrow
| Engineering unveiled its first production propeller
|
| It seems that Sharrow was initially trying to tackle drones,
| but found boat props to be a lower-hanging fruit. This all
| makes me wonder who has priority on the patent -- MIT, or
| Sharrow?
| olliej wrote:
| Low content article imo - much more a marketing piece (though at
| least isn't trying to pretend it is not)
| rom-antics wrote:
| This video has a noise comparison for the drone propellers at
| 1:11
|
| https://twitter.com/MITLL/status/1611438712683958306
| s1artibartfast wrote:
| You see any reporting on the loss of efficiency due to the
| different design?
| Torkel wrote:
| Wow. Anyone making these for drones yet?
|
| This will be big.
| paulcole wrote:
| As someone who grew up doing a lot of outdoor activity, I assumed
| part of the fun of owning a drone and/or motorboat was annoying
| the shit out of the people around you?
| Waterluvian wrote:
| My family cottage is on a lake about 4km end to end. It's the
| perfect size for some water skiing, tubing, swimming, fishing.
| But some maniac has one of those boats with four outboard
| engines lined up and zips across it in seconds. Insanely loud.
| Just awful.
| JoeAltmaier wrote:
| Didn't read much but look like they could foul pretty solidly.
| nailer wrote:
| Saving you some time: skip the first video, go straight to the
| second.
| discordance wrote:
| Second video: https://youtu.be/b9a40Rs5CxE
| ge96 wrote:
| Wonder if it helps with seaweed issues
| number6 wrote:
| I guess we will see them in Ukraine
| Gravityloss wrote:
| A company called Aviation Partners developed and licensed
| winglets. They developed the spiroid winglet that is a loop at
| the end of the wing, claiming increased efficiency over plain
| winglets. No takers so far, first tested 30 years ago.
| https://www.aviationpartners.com/aircraft-winglets/types-ble...
| ricardobeat wrote:
| Since their other winglet designs are on modern Boeing
| airplanes, there must be a reason for that.
| ballenf wrote:
| Could they make these out of a stiff silicone? Seems more doable
| than with a traditional prop.
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(page generated 2023-01-29 23:01 UTC)