Low noise ducted fan

An aircraft comprising:

• a fuselage having a forward portion and an aft portion;
• and
• a tiltable ducted fan comprising:
• a duct having a central longitudinal axis;
• a rotor hub and a stator hub extending along the central longitudinal axis;
• rotor blades extending from the rotor hub, each of the rotor blades operable to rotate about its own pitch-change axis, the pitch-change axes lying in a rotor plane that is generally perpendicular to the central longitudinal axis, each of the rotors having a rotor trailing edge and a rotor chord length;
• stators extending from the stator hub to an interior surface of the duct, each of the stators having a stator leading edge and a stator thickness;
• and
• a first separation between the rotor plane and the stator leading edge of not less than approximately 1.5 times the stator thickness.