Toroidal propeller allows a drone to operate more quietly [pdf]
I was wondering about performance, but I cannot find any data on how these toroidal propellers are preforming compared to traditional airblades.<p>The two-pager just says:<p>> Achieves thrust comparable to that of a multirotor drone propeller<p>which isn't saying anything.<p>My gut reaction is that these propellers require more material than traditional ones, which makes them weigh more, which should make them perform differently than traditional propellers. At a minimum, they should spin slower and/or strain the motor more for the same RPM. Maybe I'm completely off base.<p>I found this other website [1] which reports thrust differences between traditional and toroidal propellers <i>for boats</i>. At least under the conditions reported in the graph, it seems that toroidal propellers might outperform traditional boat propellers.<p>Again, I'm not sure how much air behaves like water. My layman understanding of fluid dynamics tells me that air is different from water just because air propellers don't look like water propellers (e.g., they require longer, thinner, blades; air engines need to spin way faster than water ones; water probably requires more torque) and you can't turn a boat into a helicopter if you turn it sideways.<p>[1]: <a href="https://newatlas.com/aircraft/toroidal-quiet-propellers/" rel="nofollow">https://newatlas.com/aircraft/toroidal-quiet-propellers/</a>