Jetoptera Receives USAF Contracts Following Impressive Noise Test Results

Jetoptera recently announced that it has received two Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) contracts from the US Air Force to facilitate collaboration with the Universities of Notre Dame and Washington. Additionally, the company published the results of a study conducted under a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) with the US Army.  This involved comparing noise signatures between the Fluidic Propulsive System (FPS™) and a propeller, and concluded that the FPS™ has a significant and lasting advantage over anything involving propellers and or rotors. With abatement, Jetoptera expects noise levels of 40 dBA at 300m, which would make an FPS™ equipped aircraft almost inaudible, and well out of the reach of propeller approaches.

Jetoptera Personal Drone

For the first USAF contract, Jetoptera has partnered with the University of Notre Dame (Professor Scott Morris) to employ the anechoic wind tunnel in their Turbomachinery Labs and characterize the aero performance and acoustics signature of the FPS™ and compare it to similar thrust propulsors currently employed in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and Urban Air Mobility (UAM) concepts. According to Dr. Andrei Evulet, CEO of Jetoptera, Inc., “we will compare the FPS™ and three other propulsion technologies that are the legacy propulsors for Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) UAVs and UAM vehicles using a similar power supply for each. Having already established our FPS™ lower noise emissions potential versus a propeller under another program, this time we will be using an anechoic chamber and a different measurement system, with the goal of confirming the advantages of the propulsion technology we have invented.”

Jetoptera has also partnered with the University of Washington (Professor Alberto Aliseda) to employ the Kirsten Wind Tunnel to demonstrate feasibility of lift and thrust augmentation by a wing-integrated Fluidic Propulsion System via the Boundary Layer Ingestion and Upper Blown Surface Jet Mechanisms. Our goal is to find the maximum vertical lift produced with this combination and demonstrate that by distributing the FPS™ along a wing we can produce a specific lift force (lbf/hp) similar to a low disk load rotor employed by rotary wing aircraft. “We will investigate and find the optimal architecture for the use of the wing for VTOL in conjunction with the FPS™ and how it could match the performance of a rotor, by using the same power, but without the large, noisy, moving parts,” said Dr. Evulet.

Why it’s important: Jetoptera has demonstrated significant headway in proving that FPS™ is quieter, faster, simpler, more compact and less expensive than a rotor or propeller driven aircraft. Combined with FPS™’ agnosticism to energy sources, it has potential to provide a propulsion solution that addresses noise, safety and performance, which continue to be major challenges in unmanned and manned aviation. The company also sees its technology to be readily applicable for a range of use cases – medical and humanitarian relief, logistics, general aviation, military, and more.

Source // Jetoptera