Stunning 3-D Animation Reveals How a Drone Moves Air

(bright music)

[Narrator] Mesmerizing, isn't it?

If you had the power to see air,

this is what a DJI Phantom 3 drone

would look like in flight.

Those white cascading stringy bits are the wash.

Blue is areas of low pressure.

Red is high pressure.

Combined, they provide a stunning view

of the invisible aerodynamics of the quad copters

that are filling our skies.

Check out the blades on the drone.

The tops are blue, meaning low pressure.

But what you can't see is that

the bottoms of the blades are red, meaning high pressure.

It's actually the difference between these high

and low pressures that allows the drone to generate thrust.

And notice how the pressure ripples across

the body of the drone as the blades pass over.

Beautiful, but also pivotal for aerodynamics.

When the blades pass over the arms,

the body produces a downward force that reduces thrust.

So making more efficient drones

is about carefully calibrating the shape of the arms.

Notice also that the blades

are cutting into their own blue vortices.

This is actually what creates that characteristic,

well, drone of a drone.

But with such stunning visualizations,

engineers will be able to make quieter,

more efficient drones.

And hell, if Amazon insists on

swarming our cities to deliver packages,

we'll take all the quiet we can get.