Texas A&M University Harmony

Harmony 
Harmony Aeronautics
College Station, Texas, USA

In June 2018, Harmony Aeronautics was formed by Prof. Moble Benedict, eight of his graduate students, Dr. Eric Greenwood , and Dr. Vinod Lakshminarayan in a collaborative effort to design an aircraft for entry into the GoFly competition. Harmony is a high-TRL compact rotorcraft designed to minimize noise and maximize efficiency, safety, reliability, and flight experience. To date, they have no website.

The team has built and tested one third scale model of the craft, and a full scale model of the aircraft has undergone indoor and outdoor tethered flight testing. 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

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 scale model of the aircraft.

Company Insights:

• Crunchbase

Resources:

• GoFly Prize website
• News Release: GoFly Winners, GoFly, Jun. 14, 2018
• Article: Boeing’s $2 Million Challenge to Make the Sky Fun Again—With ‘Flying Motorbikes’, Wired, Jun. 14, 2018
• Article: Boeing Asked for Quiet Jetpacks and Got a Bunch of Air Motorcycles, Bloomberg, Jun. 14, 2018
• Article: Contest Aims to Lift Personal Flying Machines Off the Page, The New York Times, Jun. 14, 2018
• Article: Here are the Finalists for Boeing’s $2 million ‘Personal Flying Device’ Contest, The Verge, Jun. 14, 2018
• Article: Meet the Mad Geniuses Building Personal Flying Machines, Fast Company, Jun. 14, 2018
• Article: GoFly Enters Phase II, Vertiflite, July/August 2018
• Article: GoFly Hits 40, evtol.news, Feb. 6, 2019
• Article: Meet the Teams: Get to Know Team Texas A&M University, From Houston, Texas, GoFlyPrize.com, Mar. 12, 2019
• News Release: Meet the 5 Winners Of GoFly Phase II, Mar. 26, 2019
• Video: GoFly Prize: Announcing the Phase II Winners, Mar. 26, 2019
• Article: AHS Supports GoFly!, Vertiflite, Nov/Dec 2017 
• Article: Flying Solo: GoFly Advances Single-Passenger Air Mobility Solutions, Vertiflite, May/June 2019
• Article: GoFly Inspires Innovation, Vertiflite, May/June 2020
• Article: GoFly Teams Prepare to Fly Again, Vertiflite, Nov/Dec 2020