We went to see and hear for ourselves which EVTOL makes the least noise: Joby's S4 or Archer's Midnight? With camera and dB meter in hand we put them both to the test. Send your feedback and observations to evtol.research@gmail.com
They seem to have optimised engine use as they don't appear to lug around engines used only for take off and landing. That appears to be a better utilisation of the weight carried and lower cost and maintenance too. I am not sure how well Joby can cope with one motor out though
Two different approaches. Archer is going for max OTS components for cost and supply chain issues. Joby is going vertical integration for max efficiency.
Thanks for this. Archer's plane is quieter...but sounds like an aircraft. Identifiable. The flight at 12:00 is downright noisy. Joby's plane sounds like the wind. A much more viable choice for an urban air taxi. Thanks for the video. Selling my Archer stock to buy more Joby.
If all of these are presumably flying without the weight of passengers, their noise will go up considerably when loaded as the disc loading of the propellers will increase.
Not even close to an even comparison between S4 and Maker. The camera crew is 40 meters away at S4's hover (71 db highest) while for Maker the crew is 240 meters away at hover (55 db highest). Even still. It's telling how loud Maker is to S4... Midnight is much louder with it getting to 85 db at 85 meters away.
@@sphudson I am glad that these slapped together, 'not science project' eVTOLs sound obnoxious. It is very easy to tell the difference and sets Joby apart. In the case of Archer, I believe their schedule to begin service as much as I believed their schedule for delivery to the Air Force and for piloted flight! They have yet to transition and had one flight mishap this year, so far after which Midnight did not fly from March 7 to May 3 according to the observations in this video, contrary to their twitter posts.
Very much agree, @chrisn7847. These comments are a joke. @sphudson I’ll wait to see an equivalent comparison of these vehicles at useful GW and a takeoff profile that doesn’t drain the batteries before making such denouncements. You should too.
I really like the Joby design. Loading them to max gross takeoff weight will certainly increase the noise, but still way less obtrusive than any helicopter. Now they just need to hybridize it and expand their utility/market 👍🏻
Well done! Not perfect of course, but it is far better comparative video than anything else out there. Thank you. Those must have been long days waiting for action.
Perfect would be both companies subjecting themselves to a standardised test. Joby of course has extensively published data and video material about their sound profile. Archer hasn't yet done so. We believe that the only online material with sound is the very first test flight of Maker in December 2021.
On the May 3 flight, the aft propellers on the Midnight have four blades. It is especially visible at the very end of the video (16:20) Looks like they need to up the power and speed on the aft motors if they want to get down to two blades. More noise coming. Wow, that is loud. I wonder what it is like in the cabin. I don't want one near my neighborhood! The midnight overhead is 99 - 100 dB with four blades on the aft props (15:20). The Joby S4 is barely perceptible in comparison. Thank you very much!
The altitude difference of the vehicles during flyover differs by an order of magnitude. Making uninformed critiques of the performance based on this comparison is a waste of time.
@@SchrodingerPants The Joby takeoff is at 40 meters (0:43). The Archer takeoff is at 85 meters (11:50). That is a 6.5 db penalty for Joby! Have another look. The quality of Joby's db's are so, soo much better. Mostly sounds like wind or background noise, barely perceptible, not a swarm of angry hornets like Midnight.😂 Good luck.
@@mike33398109 I guess when you neglect minor details like gross weight, power consumption, and thrust-dependent prop speeds it all seems so simple and clear cut. Good luck to you!
I think right now the plan is to have them fly from Major city downtowns (like Manhattan where ambient sound is already really high) to airports, where ambient sound is already really high as well.
Joby's six larger props are much quieter than Archer's twelve smaller props. Same takeoff measured noise level at half the distance is a big deal. The 100db low level Archer overflight is not indicative of how it would be experienced in operation I don't think, but it does show that the configuration is not inherently quiet and needs altitude before overflying anything sensitive. There was no such Joby overflight so impossible to compare. They have both achieved a lot in the world of aviation, though I remain skeptical of battery storage viability. I wouldn't be surprised if they both wound up hybrids with twice the payload/range.
Very interesting viewpoint. How much of the battery in your view is dedicated to reserve and how heavy would a combustion engine with fuel be ? Would that be a good trade off?
@@EVTOLresearch Battery electric powertrains are 40x heavier than turbine jet fuel powertrains for equivalent range. Big difference. VTOL is twice as power hungry as CTOL. Another big difference. Twelve small props are much less efficient than one big helo rotor. Third big difference. This is why every evtol aims at 50 mile trips when a similarly sized airplane would go 1000 miles.
