Electric Air Taxi Manufacturers Turn to NASA to Model Noise

NASA’s Overflow computer program predicts how air will behave around the aircraft, giving manufacturers insight into potential noise during operations.

Jack Daleo

Tuesday, April 09, 2024 at 02:25 PM ET

Verified

An image shared by NASA depicts the results of an Overflow model measuring the air flows around Joby Aviation’s flagship air taxi. [Courtesy: NASA]

Key Takeaways:

eVTOL air taxi manufacturers are collaborating with NASA to address noise, a critical hurdle for the widespread adoption of urban air mobility.
NASA's publicly available computer program, Overflow, allows companies like Archer, Joby, and Wisk Aero to model aircraft noise and aerodynamic performance, helping optimize designs for quieter and more efficient operation.
This partnership is part of NASA's broader Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) mission, which includes support for various aspects of eVTOL development, from battery testing to simulating airport operations.
U.S. efforts to develop domestic eVTOL technology are being pushed forward in part by competition from rapidly progressing international manufacturers, particularly those in China.

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Whether you love them, hate them, or are in the process of building them, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxis have a key hurdle to overcome: noise. Air taxi manufacturers are turning to NASA for assistance.

According to the space agency, “several” eVTOL companies are deploying a NASA computer program to model their future operations and the noise they will produce. The program, called Overflow, was developed in the 1990s. But NASA tells FLYING it has made “significant improvements” to its code to improve its usefulness for the industry. The code is publicly available for download.