Quieter props?

scro · Jan 28, 2023

I came across an interesting article on alternative prop designs. I wonder how long until these start appearing on consumer drones? Looks like they wouldn't lend themselves so well to folding drones though.

MIT's latest drone propellers are very quiet and efficient

The MIT Lincoln lab has produced some new devices for aircraft and drones that produce some impressive efficiency gains and are radically quieter in both air and water.

interestingengineering.com

GFields · Jan 28, 2023

There’s another thread on this. Going to be interesting to see if they work. Thanks for sharing

shawgod · Jan 28, 2023

I know on the Phantom 4 Pro there is different types of props I can buy. They have the regular prop and low noise prop. I have no seen this for any of my Mavic drones, I assume they are all low noise.

notadrop · Jan 28, 2023

Freddy K · Jan 28, 2023

I agree that the 8-shape propellor doesn't look very foldable in its current form. But I'm sure DJI (and others) will be doing tests with variations of this concept. Maybe it also works when splitting the "8" into two halfs (like the current propellors on drones).
I'm sure we will see these new propellors appear on newer drones, because I think it would convince a lot of drone pilots to buy a new bird, just for the reduced noise level. When this will happen is another question.

I'm wondering if these new propellors would also work on existing drones, as a third party add-on (Master AirScrew?). I'd buy that in an instant.