Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Drowning Out the Sound of Drones

Low-flying aircraft could soon fill the skies. Scientists are trying to fight the noise they could bring.

Image credits: Shutterstock

Drowning Out the Sound of Drones

Low-flying aircraft could soon fill the skies. Scientists are trying to fight the noise they could bring.

Katharine Gammon, Contributor

February 14, 2022      


(Inside Science) -- In 2018, aerospace engineer Daniel Cuppoletti went to a conference in Los Angeles about the future of metropolitan air transportation. He arrived skeptical about the mere intent of the summit, which was run by ride-hailing company Uber.


But by the time he left, Cuppoletti saw the world in a whole new light. "I suddenly thought: there's a vision here, and it's real. It's not replacing commercial aircraft transportation, it's creating an entirely new market for something that we don't have at this moment," he said.


That new market was for short flights in piloted air taxis (sometimes known as eVTOLs) and drones to deliver medicines and other supplies. Yes, there would be issues around how urban air space is used, but Cuppoletti also saw a specific problem, one that he was uniquely poised to address as someone who studied aeroacoustics: the noise that these vehicles would make when they flew...

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