4 ms·

Both propellers and wings are fundamentally the same thing: airfoils. However, air passes over a propeller much, much faster than over a wing, and creates shoc

Both propellers and wings are fundamentally the same thing: airfoils. However, air passes over a propeller much, much faster than over a wing, and creates shock waves in a way that wings don't.

mikeash 8y ago
Does it? The same airfoil needs the same speed to provide a given amount of lift, regardless of whether it’s a wing or a propellor.
- alexis_fr 8y ago
  The speed of a propeller is low close to the rotor, and sometimes faster than sound at the extremity of the blades. Can’t reduce sound on that.
  - sokoloff 8y ago
    Propeller efficiency takes a nose dive when the tips go supersonic. Most props therefore do not operate in this range.
Gibbon1 8y ago
Wings don't rotate and thus don't efficiently produce sound waves.