The next big advance in flight?

[unixronin]

radarrider pointed out this article about a guy who may just have come up with a quieter, safer, more efficient replacement for the majority of helicopter applications.  This could be The Next Big Thing in aviation.

Comments

[greyman.livejournal.com]

I have a big problem with this idea... squirrel cage blowers use centripetal acceleration to fling the fluid out in the radial direction. Of course, we usually surround them with a housing so the flow gets directed, but the inlet is on the *center*, and the outlet is on the *edge*.

The airflow on this thing, at 0 airspeed, would be radially outward in the unshrouded direction. You'd need an inlet on the wingtip. The air would flow in the wingtip, along the wing, and out... not only back along the wing (and not much of that) but also UP and FORWARD.

Now, I see from the picture that the blades aren't very wide, so the radial acceleration is minimized That means they don't move much air, though.

Color me confused.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

The pictures sure make it look like the fan is at least partially shrouded; we haven't the bandwidth to play the videos. (Well, actually, maybe I could download them overnight.) The fact that they have flying models would seem to imply that on at least some level, it works. Beyond that, I only know what's on the site.