New Dyson bladeless jet engine selected for all electric Airbus A320E — virtually eliminating risk of of bird strikes and danger for ground crews, while also reducing engine complexity and part count by almost 82%.
The new engine is powered by a system Dyson is calling a "Fluidic Propulsion Air Multiplier" (FPAM).
Dyson has been making bladeless fans for a few years now that accelerate a consistent stream of air without exposed blades.
The engine had been in top secret development for years after having been awarded a contract with DARPA to turn air surrounding a craft into powerful thrust capable of supersonic speeds.
It boils down to physics.
While it's true that the atmosphere is gaseous, gases obey the physical laws of fluid dynamics.
As air flows through the slits in the tube and out through the front of the fan, air behind the fan is drawn through the tube as well.
This is called inducement. The flowing air pushed by the motor induces the air behind the fan to follow.
Air surrounding the edges of the fan will also begin to flow in the direction of the breeze.
This process is called entrainment.
Through inducement and entrainment, Dyson claims the FPAM increases the output of airflow by 15,000 times the amount it takes in through the motor.
Dyson's engineers addressed the turbulence problems by integrating Helmholtz cavities into the fan's base.
If you've ever held a seashell to your ear or blown across the top of a glass bottle, you've experienced the effect of these cavities, in which sound bounces and skids across a hard surface.
Helmholtz cavities make noise, of course. Figure out exactly how these cavities work, and then you can control that noise.
By adding Helmholtz cavities of sorts into the base of the FPAM, engineers increased air pressure, and ultimately these cavities began to work as silencers.
Car manufacturers are very familiar with the principles of Helmholtz cavities.
They manipulate them to their advantage when quieting exhaust systems.
In the case of the FPAM, engineers basically tuned the cavities to specifically mute sounds in the range of 1,000 Hertz, which humans tend to find especially aggravating.
There's no question that the FPAM is a striking technological innovation.
Perhaps in the future, no jet engines will have visible internal blades, all capable of supersonic propulsion, yet achieve whisper quiet performance that even today's best stealthy jets find envious.