D-Dalus: Disruptive Aussie aircraft design uses cylindrical propulsion.

The "propellers" more or less look like the cylindrical drum in a standard push lawn mower with blades on it[1], but instead of blades it has fins. The drums counter-rotated against each other, generating lift.

Highlights of the engine design (from the article):

  * It is near silent
  * Low/Easy maintenance because of simple design.
  * Can carry a heavy load
  * Extremely agile (hover/fly/land/maneuver)
  * No expensive engine to produce

Seems like all thumbs up stuff here, very interesting read. I think the biggest indicator to me that this would work is how simple the design is.

Another cool highlight from the article:

  The forces on the blade pivots are understandably huge,
  and in initial testing it was found that all available 
  bearings failed, so inventor Meinhard Schwaiger, who 
  already has more than 150 patents to his name, knuckled 
  down and invented (and patented) his own, near-
  frictionless swivel-bearing to cope with the stresses.

[1] http://images.gizmag.com/gallery_lrg/d-dalus-revolutionary-u...

this might be the principle how it works http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voith_Schneider_Propeller

Very large pond, very large rock, big splash. Disruptive technology indeed. I'd guess that their funding problems (if any) are now over---particularly if they are smart enough to license this. Just as an example, imagine a joint-venture between Northrop Grumman with it's lead in fly-by-wire with this device.

I believe the title is misleading, as it has incorrectly labelled this an "Aussie" design.

The article states IAT21 as being an "Austrian research company"?

AUSTRIAN, not Australian.