When discussing eVTOLs, noise is a frequent concern. Everyone is familiar with the noise that helicopters make as they pass overhead, and new aircraft will need to be significantly quieter to be accepted.

This summer, we completed the first phase of flight testing of our eVTOL demonstrator, with 550 test flights. We were able to show a high degree of stability and control in all conditions, including full transitions from hover to cruise and back again.

The demonstrator was designed as a research platform to prove our understanding of the flight dynamics and develop our control laws for large size tilt-wing aircraft. It has helped us build the technology for aEro 3, our manned tilt-wing aircraft for medical transport and regional air mobility.

As a research platform, it has not been optimized for noise emissions. Nonetheless, we think it is interesting to hear the character of the noise it produces, and we would like to share some footage of a full transition flight with audio to show our progress as of summer 2020. Note that this is an on-board recording, from directly below the props, and even so it is significantly less noisy than a helicopter.

We are equipping our next pre-series prototype with more optimized props, which reduce the total noise signature.

Tilt-wing aircraft with electric propulsion enable many new opportunities in vertical mobility. They offer much greater safety, efficiency, and speed than helicopters. Because they are also so much quieter and more affordable, they will be far more accepted by the public.