Delson Aeronautics wins 25,000 with its low-noise propellers

A Canadian firm that’s been working on solutions to an industry-wide problem – noise – has just won a startup competition. And the prize is worth $25,000.

Drones are incredible devices capable of carrying out a wide variety of tasks. They’re amazing, really. But many drones have a downside: noise. That whine that some drones produce can really be annoying –especially if you’re a person who is not involved with operations. As the world heads into an era where drone operations in urban centers begins to grow – including the potential for deliveries – this becomes a problem that’s increasingly important to solve.

And now, there’s recognition of the work being done by a Canadian company on this front.

Delson Aeronautics

The company in question is Delson Aeronautics, founded by Michael Deloyer. We’ve covered developments with Delson Aeronautics before, as we see this as a huge issue that many drone manufacturers will need to address. To refresh your memory, have a look at this incredible video the company released:

That is pretty darn impressive.

KyronMAX Challenge

Earlier this year, the Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials KyronMAX® Challenge put out a call for engineers and designers to share designs that put KyronMAX’s carbon fiber-based composites to solve a manufacturing or engineering challenge. Delson Entered the competition, which came with a prize worth $25,000 in expert support and manufacturing services from Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials.

There were dozens of submissions to the Challenge, and ultimately 14 finalists were selected. As you’ve guessed by now, Delson’s pitch – which included recycling the UAV blades – really caught the attention of the judges.

Delson Aeronautics logo

We spoke with Michael Deloyer earlier today, and he’s thrilled.

“I’m surprised and grateful,” he says. “It’s just great recognition, to be honest, of the three-plus years of designing these blades silently in the background.”

Deloyer says winning the prize will definitely take the company through its next important step.

With the manufacturing support from MCAM, we will explore their manufacturing methods and materials capabilities. From which we will produce blades in select sizes for testing on various UAV airframes. What this could amount to is an extremely lightweight, low cost, scalable, and sustainable solution to manufacturing the Delson ultra-quiet UAV blades.

Michael Deloyer, CEO, Delson Aeronautics

Wait, there’s more….

And there is. You can find a post about this from Wevolver right here. It has some more details about the capabilities of the Delson Aeronautics Ultra-Quiet UAV Blades:

Delson’s novel blade design method can entirely eliminate the incessant buzzing sound of drones. The patent-pending blade design method results in an average 10 dB sound reduction (50% quieter) relative to equivalently sized conventional UAV propeller blades. The intention of these blades is to provide a simplistic and effective solution to eliminating the incessant noise of UAVs. Lightweight, high-strength materials are critical for UAV propeller manufacturing.

Wevolver post

Future plans

There’s already been some interest from drone manufacturers in what Michael and his team are up to. And that bodes well for the company, which hopes to one day license this technology to select drone companies. We’re betting there will be more than one knocking on his door.

Because, face it, with rare exceptions drones are noisy.

“Even when it’s not loud, it’s always annoying,” says Deloyer. “It’s that they sound like mosquitoes and nobody likes that. These blades just don’t produce that sound, ever.”

Good luck, Michael. Looks – and sounds – like this product has a future.

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