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Transforming Urban Air Mobility: A Deep Dive into Whisper Aero’s Quiet Innovations

Host Jason Pritchard sits down with Whis­per Aero’s Chief Engi­neer, Devon Jedams­ki, to explore ground­break­ing advance­ments in the eVTOL and propul­sion tech­nol­o­gy sec­tors.

Whis­per Aero is on a mis­sion to deliv­er clean­er, qui­eter, and more effi­cient elec­tric thrust at scale, and this pod­cast episode pro­vides a com­pre­hen­sive look at their inno­v­a­tive approach.

From Humble Beginnings to Propulsion Pioneer

Devon’s jour­ney in propul­sion tech­nol­o­gy began with a foun­da­tion­al influ­ence from his father, an elec­tri­cian. Devon ini­tial­ly pur­sued a career in renew­able ener­gy, con­duct­ing sig­nif­i­cant research on wind tur­bines and elec­tri­cal pow­er sys­tems at NASA Glenn and UAV aero­dy­nam­ic design at NASA Lan­g­ley.

His pas­sion drove him to MIT, where, under the men­tor­ship of Ed Gre­itzer, Devon honed his exper­tise in propul­sion at the gas tur­bine lab.

His pro­fes­sion­al tra­jec­to­ry con­tin­ued at Northrop Grum­man, where he spear­head­ed new propul­sion tech­nolo­gies, amass­ing over $25 mil­lion in Depart­ment of Defense (DoD) con­tracts. Invit­ed by co-founder Ian Vil­la, for­mer­ly asso­ci­at­ed with Uber Ele­vate, Devon joined Whis­per Aero to embark on a new chap­ter in qui­et propul­sion.

Whisper Aero: A New Era in Propulsion Technology

Whis­per Aero is a propul­sion com­pa­ny with a dis­tinc­tive focus: cre­at­ing qui­et, effi­cient, and reli­able propul­sion sys­tems that are seam­less­ly inte­grat­ed into var­i­ous mar­kets, includ­ing aero­space, eVTOL, and even con­sumer appli­ca­tions like qui­et leaf blow­ers.

The Whis­per Jet, their sig­na­ture tech­nol­o­gy, made a splash in 2023 at the IAAA avi­a­tion con­fer­ence. Stealth mode no longer, the Whis­per Jet promis­es a nov­el tech­nol­o­gy designed to meet strin­gent DoD noise standards—something that, accord­ing to Devon, can eas­i­ly trans­late to com­mer­cial prod­ucts.

Breaking Down the Technology

Whis­per Aero’s core inno­va­tion revolves around push­ing blade pass­ing fre­quen­cy into the ultra­son­ic range, unde­tectable to the human ear. Tra­di­tion­al meth­ods of achiev­ing this involved spin­ning blades faster, a process that incurs noise penal­ties. Whis­per Aero’s method instead uses low tip speeds and high blade counts to min­i­mize noise.

  • High Blade Counts:Dis­trib­ut­ing the thrust load over many blades low­ers sound pres­sure lev­els
  • Broad Noise Dis­tri­b­u­tion:Cre­ates a pleas­ant noise spec­trum devoid of annoy­ing tones
  • Effi­cient Noise Atten­u­a­tion:High-fre­quen­cy noise is nat­u­ral­ly atten­u­at­ed by the atmos­phere, mak­ing it qui­eter over dis­tances

This approach not only achieves unpar­al­leled lev­els of qui­et but also main­tains high rotor effi­cien­cy of 90–92 per cent at var­i­ous scales, a sig­nif­i­cant improve­ment over typ­i­cal tur­bine engines.

Practical Applications and Market Impact

Whis­per Aero’s tech­nol­o­gy has numer­ous appli­ca­tions:

  • High-Speed Flight:Sup­ports speeds between 200–400 knots, unlike cur­rent eVTOL sys­tems max­ing out around 200 knots.
  • Oper­a­tional Effi­cien­cy:Enhances the fre­quen­cy and effi­cien­cy of flights over dis­tances up to 500 miles.
  • Beyond Aero­space:The technology’s ver­sa­til­i­ty extends to HVAC sys­tems, drones, and even qui­et leaf blow­ers.

Noise man­age­ment is a crit­i­cal pub­lic con­cern, with increas­ing sen­si­tiv­i­ty to noise pol­lu­tion. This has dri­ven pol­i­cy changes and bans on high-noise machines, such as gas leaf blow­ers. Whis­per Aero’s tech­nol­o­gy tack­les this head-on by promis­ing qui­eter, more pub­lic-friend­ly prod­ucts.

Major Developments and Strategic Moves

Whis­per Aero’s momen­tum con­tin­ued with a sig­nif­i­cant con­tract from NASA to devel­op qui­et ven­ti­la­tion sys­tems for space habi­tats and space­craft. Addi­tion­al­ly, their strate­gic relo­ca­tion to Crossville, Ten­nessee, was a move encour­aged in late 2020 by Vil­la.

The city offers an ide­al envi­ron­ment for devel­op­ment test­ing, bol­stered by strong sup­port from state and local author­i­ties, includ­ing finan­cial back­ing for flight test hangars.

Engaging the Supply Chain: The Supply Summit

Recent­ly, Whis­per Aero suc­cess­ful­ly host­ed its first Sup­ply Sum­mit, draw­ing between 50 to 100 unique sup­pli­ers to show­case their tech­nol­o­gy. The event received pos­i­tive feed­back, high­light­ing demon­stra­tions across a spec­trum of their products—from air­craft to con­sumer leaf blow­ers.

Future Outlook

Whis­per Aero is poised for expan­sive growth, tar­get­ing a broad range of mar­kets with their ver­sa­tile propul­sion tech­nol­o­gy. They are active­ly seek­ing part­ner­ships to dri­ve both near-term and long-term projects. The upcom­ing UP.Summit and oth­er announce­ments promise to keep indus­try enthu­si­asts and part­ners engaged.

Stay tuned to eVTOL Insights for more indus­try-shap­ing dis­cus­sions and insights into the evolv­ing world of urban air mobil­i­ty.

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Jason Pritchard

Jason Pritchard is the Editor of eVTOL Insights. He holds a BA from Leicester's De Montfort University and has worked in Journalism and Public Relations for more than a decade. Outside of work, Jason enjoys playing and watching football and golf. He also has a keen interest in Ancient Egypt.

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