The best hope of developing eVTOL lies in diversifying its core technologies, not least because it has derived any number of them from developments elsewhere. Whisper Aero is thus reaching out for partners wishing to manufacture leaf-blowers instead.
While it may smack of Clive Sinclair's C5 being powered by washing-machine motors, it is not as bizarre as you may think. Leaf-blowers are banned in a number of areas in the US for being too noisy, whereas Whisper's is not. And the first garden vacuum in the UK was built by an aerospace engineer: he didn't want anything else being sucked up beside leaves, and turned to the Magnus effect employed in NOTAR helicopters to eliminate the tail-rotor.
I shan't be recommending fans for the the 'DRONE, however, for as yet they cost upto ten times more than a motor and propeller producing the same amount of thrust.
The pic shows Whisper's own demonstrator... designed and built in just eight months.
