The extremely loud noise made by helicopter blades results primarily from the blades chopping through eddies in their own wakes, a phenomenon known as blade-vortex interaction. By changing the shape of the rotor blades, Eurocopter manages to pair down the blade-vortex interaction so thoroughly that the sound only reaches the whisper volume of 3 or 4 decibels.
To hear just how drastic the difference between a normal rotor and the Blue Edge rotor is, check out this video.
[Wired Autopia via Gizmodo]
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