The First Plane Without Moving Parts Uses Ion Wind
MIT engineers like Star Trek it seems. They saw its ion engines and built a revolutionary plane that uses electro-aerodynamic thrust. This unique propulsion could be used to develop quite drones or hybrid airplanes that save money, mechanic’s time and even the environment.
It has been more than 100 years since the first airplane flew and every airplane since used some form of moving parts. Whether it was a propeller, turbines or jets. But now a new technology has appeared that doesn’t need any moving parts.
Engineers from MIT developed and built a machine that isn’t using any propellers or jets. Their plane flies using “ion wind”. An inconspicuous but effective jet of ions that get created straight on the plane. Yet this ion wind creates enough upward pressure to allow the plane to fly. Plus, such a machine doesn’t need any fossil fuels and is absolutely quiet in flight.
The engineers say they have been inspired by science fiction. In this case, it was Star Trek. They remember how they watched the spaceships flying through both space and the atmospheres of planets with close to no sound and no exhaust fumes. This brought them to the idea of planes without loud propellers or jets and all that would come out of them would be the blue glow of ions.
It took them more than 10 years of hard work before they got to this point. First, they needed to find an option to make a plane without any moving parts. In the end, they decided to use ion wind – which is more often called electro-aerodynamic thrust. This effect comes into play when electricity is conducted through the air between a thin and a thicker electrode with enough voltage. A jet stream of ion gets created and its thrust can move the airplane. We have even known about this effect since the early 20th century but making use of it that was a completely different question.
The new plane has a wingspan of 5 meters but only weighs about 2.25 kilograms. It's built in a way that a system of thin wires on the front of the wings functions of an anode and a similar system of slightly thicker wires on the back of the back of wings function as cathodes. And lithium-polymer batteries provide a voltage of 40 000 volts. The cathodes of the plane attract electrons from the air molecules created a cloud of ionized particles. This cloud then moves towards the anodes and the ions collide with other air molecules. When that happens thrust is created.
First experiments show the ion-wind plane flies and flies well. Now the team is working hard on making their technology better. And soon we will know whether we will get quiet drones flying on clouds of ions above our heads.
Sources:
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0707-9
- http://news.mit.edu/2018/first-ionic-wind-plane-no-moving-parts-1121
- If you like the content I’m producing about science maybe you will like the content I produce about gaming as well! Be sure to check out my other blogs!
- @gaming-trail Where we are your everyday source of gaming-news!
- @kralizec Where I review video games and make commentaries about video game