Shhh… Whisper's Gone Electric and the Skies Might Just Get Interesting… and Quiet…
Image Credit: Whisper Aero.
You might recall Whisper Aero, those clever chaps who, in a moment of what I can only assume was utter boredom with the actual sky, decided to build a leaf blower. And this magical blower apparently whispers sweet nothings to the leaves while shifting them about with the efficiency of a well-drilled marching band. Forty percent more air, forty percent less oomph needed, and half the racket? Blimey.
While I'm sure the neighborhood squirrels appreciate the newfound tranquility during autumn clean-up, it wasn't foliage relocation that truly tickled Whisper's fancy. Their hearts, it turns out, beat for the wild blue yonder, specifically for quieter electric aircraft. Mark Moore, the big cheese over at Whisper and a former NASA brainbox, first popped onto the radar with a contraption called the Puffin. It was a single-person electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) thingamajig designed to hurl its pilot through the air headfirst, Superman-style. At the time, it sounded less like aviation and more like a rather alarming fairground ride.
Luckily for anyone with a healthy sense of self-preservation, the eVTOL market got a bit crowded, a proper gold rush as they say. So, in a move of surprising sanity, Whisper decided to flog leaf blower tech to Stanley Black & Decker – a rather sensible way to rake in some dosh while they pursued their aerial ambitions. Good call, I say, because if we're all going to be zipping about in electric air taxis, they'd better not sound like a swarm of angry hornets. Efficiency is key, and keeping the decibels down is paramount unless we want our skies to sound like a heavy metal concert performed by angry bees.
Image Credit: Whisper Aero.
Whisper's secret weapon? The UltraQuiet WhisperDrive - an electric ducted fan. Usually, fans are all about big blades thrashing the air into submission. Not this one. This little marvel has a relatively small diameter but packs in a ludicrous number of stiff blades, all held together by a shroud ring. Essentially, it's a very sophisticated, high-tech Catherine wheel, but instead of showering sparks, it gently persuades air to move.
The sheer number of blades means it can shift a decent amount of air without having to spin like a dervish high on something illegal. This clever design pushes the "blade passage frequency" way up to over 16,000 Hz – which is beyond the realm of hearing. Apparently, even our furry friends won't be reaching for their tiny earplugs. And because the RPM stays relatively low, that outer ring doesn't try to escape its earthly bonds due to centrifugal forces trying to play a rather destructive game of ring toss.
Now for the exciting bit. Whisper has managed to bag themselves a cool half a million US dollars in grant money from the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. What are they going to do with this king's ransom? Stick their UltraQuiet WhisperDrive into an actual airplane! A team from Tennessee Technological University is going to be tasked with giving a perfectly innocent glider a rather futuristic heart transplant. They're planning on using two of Whisper's eQ250 units. These aren't exactly the size of dinner plates; we're talking about a fan with a diameter of roughly 10 inches, each producing around 80 lbs of thrust. That's not going to break any speed records, but it's a start.
Image Credit: Whisper Aero.
The lucky recipient of this electric makeover is a Belgian-made Aeriane Swift 3 glider. The aim is to have this whisper-quiet glider soaring through the skies sometime later this year. It's a fairly modest debut for the technology, a gentle dip of the toe into the vast ocean of electric flight. There's no mention of whether this particular electric glider will become a commercial product, but it's clearly a stepping stone for Whisper's loftier ambitions.
And those ambitions are indeed rather lofty. They've got a concept for a 100-seat Jetliner that promises completely clean, battery-powered flights for distances up to around 700 miles (that's a smidge over 1,100 kilometers for you metric aficionados). And they reckon it'll only cost about a third of the energy compared to a similar-sized plane guzzling the usual dinosaur juice. Now, that's a saving that would make even the most tight-fisted airline executive crack a smile.
Of course, the world of commercial aviation moves at the pace of a particularly stubborn snail wading through treacle. The costs involved in designing, testing, certifying, and actually building these airborne behemoths are enough to make your eyes water. And for that reason, I don't expect to see a full-scale electric Jetliner gracing our skies anytime soon. But mark my words, Whisper Aero is a company to watch. They're clearly onto something with this whole "quiet and efficient" electric propulsion malarkey.
