4 ms·
Air taxis will become possible only when a quiet method of vertical take off and landing is developed, if ever. No current VTOL lightweight aircraft would be ab
by yholio 7y ago
Air taxis will become possible only when a quiet method of vertical take off and landing is developed, if ever. No current VTOL lightweight aircraft would be able to gain even experimental status in an urban environment, let alone thousands of them running at all hours of the day. The noise levels propellers make are absolutely horrendous.
- westmeal 7y agoI've always wondered if blasting inverted phase sounds recorded from the propellers (like noise cancelling headphones) would help a bit with the noise problem.
- chronogram 7y agoMy eardrums would still blow up!
- jefftk 7y agoYou can't cancel noise in general, only at specific chosen points. Noise cancelling headphones can work because your ears and in a consistent place relative to the headphones.
- jschwartzi 7y agoYou would still cancel normal conversation with that approach.
- westmeal 7y agoThanks for all the replies, I did not know it worked that way.
- Baeocystin 7y agoI came across a recent paper that discusses the cancellation of noise in a continuous 3D space. It seems complex, but not in the realm of impossibility. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6736072 https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6736072
- jschwartzi 7y agoYeah, living next to a busy street is bad enough that I can't actually use any of the outdoor space in my apartment. VTOL aircraft would make it completely unbearable indoors too.
- et2o 7y agoHave you seen Lilium? Was recently in HN. They propose to do this with many small electric motors supplying ducted fans.
- cheerlessbog 7y agoPerhaps an opportunity for an airship service, hovering indefinitely over suburbia charging $5 to silently hoist your air taxi to altitude...