mkl a year ago

Related discussion from a couple of months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33949895 (156 comments).

  • kibwen a year ago

    That was only for the boat prop design, this is the first I've seen of the infinity propellers for drones, which at least look extremely cool.

    • jbay808 a year ago

      From that article:

      > Greg reasoned that if he could reduce or even eliminate these tip vortices, it should lead to a quieter, more efficient drone. His light bulb moment came on a dog walk when the idea of a tipless blade, that loops round to rejoin the propeller hub like a strip of twisted ribbon, first popped into his head.

      > It took a further seven years of intensive research and development, substantial investment, 23 worldwide patents and a switch in focus from drones to boats before Sharrow Engineering unveiled its first production propeller

      It seems that Sharrow was initially trying to tackle drones, but found boat props to be a lower-hanging fruit. This all makes me wonder who has priority on the patent -- MIT, or Sharrow?

Gravityloss a year ago

A company called Aviation Partners developed and licensed winglets. They developed the spiroid winglet that is a loop at the end of the wing, claiming increased efficiency over plain winglets. No takers so far, first tested 30 years ago. https://www.aviationpartners.com/aircraft-winglets/types-ble...

  • ricardobeat a year ago

    Since their other winglet designs are on modern Boeing airplanes, there must be a reason for that.

metadat a year ago

Is there anywhere you can buy these for a DJI mini 3 or Mavic Pro?

I wonder if someone is already 3D printing this design in a compatible format.

olliej a year ago

Low content article imo - much more a marketing piece (though at least isn’t trying to pretend it is not)

ge96 a year ago

Wonder if it helps with seaweed issues

kmlben65 a year ago

can those be used in very high flow channel conditioner / ventilation or is usual wheel blowers more efficient? or external unit of split ac system to pack more radiator surface in less space(i understand the higher power comsumpion of it)?

ballenf a year ago

Could they make these out of a stiff silicone? Seems more doable than with a traditional prop.

JoeAltmaier a year ago

Didn't read much but look like they could foul pretty solidly.

number6 a year ago

I guess we will see them in Ukraine

paulcole a year ago

As someone who grew up doing a lot of outdoor activity, I assumed part of the fun of owning a drone and/or motorboat was annoying the shit out of the people around you?

  • Waterluvian a year ago

    My family cottage is on a lake about 4km end to end. It’s the perfect size for some water skiing, tubing, swimming, fishing. But some maniac has one of those boats with four outboard engines lined up and zips across it in seconds. Insanely loud. Just awful.