Whisper Aero wants to make aviation, and the rest of the world, quieter

News Summary

  • Moore told TechCrunch that he came out of Uber with an understanding of “the compelling need” of urban air mobility: a lower noise profile.“If you want to get to scale with delivery drones or eVTOL air taxis, you better be really quiet,” Moore said.
  • If delivery drones and air taxis — also known as electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft — gain the level of market saturation investors are hoping for, cities and neighborhoods are only going to get noisier.That’s the assumption, anyway.
  • The company’s already developed a demonstration electric leaf blower that uses its electric ducted fan.
  • Whisper has validated that it can fly a 55-pound drone with its electric ducted fan at an altitude of 200 feet that is completely undetectable, at least by noise, from the ground.
  • The company also says that many aircraft have speeds that are limited by open rotors (or open propellors), as opposed to ducted.
  • Instead of operating at 150 miles per hour, an eVTOL could potentially fly as fast as 300-400 miles per hour.With this new round of funding, Whisper is looking to double their Tennessee-based team, which currently stands somewhere between 10-50 people (they declined to be more specific).
The world is loud. If delivery drones and air taxis also known as electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft gain the level of market saturation investors are hoping for, cities and neig [+6520 chars]