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Texas A&M University, Harmony Aeronautics, Harmony (prototypes)

(Photo credit: Harmony Aeronautics)

Harmony (prototypes)
Harmony Aeronautics
Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas, USA
www.harmonyaeronautics.com
www.tamu.edu

Founded in 1876, Texas A&M University (Agricultural Mechanical College of Texas) is the first public higher education institution in Texas and is distinguished by offering more than 130 courses of studies, through 18 colleges and houses 21 research institutes. The main campus spans over 5,500 acres (22 km2). In 2024, the total student population has over 79,000 undergraduates, postgraduates and doctoral students, and has over 11,000 academic staff.

In June 2018, Harmony Aeronautics was formed by Prof. Moble Benedict, eight of his graduate students, plus Dr. Eric Greenwood and Dr. Vinod Lakshminarayan, in a collaborative effort to design an aircraft for entry into the GoFly competition. It is a Texas-based engineering service start-up with a team of engineers and scientists who are passionate about developing advanced aircraft concepts and rotor and propeller technology. The team brings years of experience in engineering research, analysis, simulation, and rotorcraft and aircraft prototype development and flight-testing. 

Harmony Aeronautics was founded by a team of faculty and graduate students in 2018 during the team’s participation in the Boeing GoFly competition. The group of highly-skilled innovators and scientists designed, developed, and flight tested a personal flying electric aircraft featuring a quiet, compact coaxial rotor design. 

The Harmony team was one of ten Phase I winners with their paper design, and one of five Phase II winners with their 1/3rd scale prototype aircraft. For Phase-III, the team leveraged their diverse experience in developing rotorcraft concepts to design, construct, and flight test a full-scale 550-lb aircraft capable of carrying a 200-lb payload. The full-scale aircraft was built on a shoe-string budget of $320K, and featured an advanced rotor design which was remarkably quiet. So quiet, in fact, that the noise measured was less than 73 dB at a distance of 50 ft while hovering! Unfortunately, the aircraft was lost in an incident just before the competition, but the technology lives.

The team has successfully built and flown the one third scale multicopter prototype aircraft. The full-scale prototype aircraft been successfully flight tested with both tethered and untethered flights. Notably, the aircraft has a noise signature of only 73 dBA at 50 ft (15.2 m), due in part to the design of the aircraft's large rotors with swept blade tips.

Harmony eVTOL subscale prototype aircraft
The 1/3 subscale Harmony is an uncrewed eVTOL prototype multicopter aircraft. The subscale prototype is piloted remotely and has a miniature mannequin attached in the open cockpit of the aircraft. The team has built and successfully flown multiple test flights with the multicopter subscale prototype. 

Almost no specifications of the prototype have been published by the university team. The estimated empty weight of the prototype is 184 lb (84 kg). The multicopter has two propellers (with four swept-back props per blade), has two electric motors and is powered by batteries. The aircraft has fixed skid landing gear.

Harmony full-scale eVTOL multicopter prototype aircraft
The full-scale Harmony is a high-technology readiness level (high-TRL) compact eVTOL multicopter aircraft designed to minimize noise and maximize efficiency, safety, reliability and flight experience. The multicopter is remotely piloted. The full-scale prototype aircraft been successfully flight tested with both tethered and untethered flights. Notably, the aircraft has a noise signature of only 73 dBA at 50 ft (15.2 m), due in part to the design of the aircraft's large rotors with swept-back blade tips.

Almost no specifications have been published by the university team on the full-scale prototype. The empty weight of  the prototype is 550 lb (250 kg), has a maximum payload weight of 200 lb (91 kg) and has a maximum takeoff weight of 750 lb (340 kg). The multicopter has two propellers (with four swept-back props per blade), has two electric motors and is powered by batteries. The aircraft has fixed skid landing gear.

Go Fly Prize information
The team successfully submitted their Vertical Take-Off and Landing rotorcraft to the GoFly Prize competition, where it was chosen as a winner in both of the first two phases. While a crash rendered the full-scale model unable to fly at the GoFly Final Fly Off for the Pratt & Whitney Disrupter Prize, the team was able to fly a subscale model of the aircraft.

Texas A&M Harmony full scale prototype

Texas A&M Harmony, Aria subscale prototype frontview

Texas A&M Harmony subscale prototype side view

Texas A&M - Aria aircraft

Texas A&M Harmony, Aria aircraft in flight

 

Specifications for Harmony 1/3 subscale eVTOL multicopter:

  • Aircraft type: Uncrewed subscale eVTOL multicopter prototype aircraft
  • Piloting: Remote control
  • Capacity: Uncrewed
  • Cruise speed: Unknown
  • Empty weight (estimated): 184 lb (84 kg)
  • Propellers: 2 propellers
  • Electric motors: 2 electric motors
  • Power source: Batteries
  • Cockpit: Open cockpit
  • Fuselage: Unknown
  • Landing gear: Fixed skid landing gear
  • Safety features: Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP) uses multiple propellers or electric ducted fans, each powered by electric motors, to increase safety through redundancy. If one or more components fail, the remaining ones can still ensure a safe landing. There are also redundancies of critical components in the sub-systems of the aircraft providing safety through redundancy. Having multiple redundant systems on any aircraft decreases having any single point of failure.

Specifications Harmony full-scale prototype:

  • Aircraft type: Uncrewed eVTOL multicopter prototype aircraft
  • Piloting: Remote control
  • Capacity: Cargo only
  • Cruise speed: Unknown
  • Empty weight: 550 lb (250 kg)
  • Maximum payload weight: 200 lb (91 kg)
  • Maximum takeoff weight: 750 lb (340 kg)
  • Propellers: 2 propellers
  • Electric motors: 2 electric motors
  • Power source: Batteries
  • Fuselage: Unknown
  • Landing gear: Fixed skid landing gear
  • Safety features: Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP) uses multiple propellers or electric ducted fans, each powered by electric motors, to increase safety through redundancy. If one or more components fail, the remaining ones can still ensure a safe landing. There are also redundancies of critical components in the sub-systems of the aircraft providing safety through redundancy. Having multiple redundant systems on any aircraft decreases having any single point of failure.

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