First flight of an ionic plane

Engineers from the Mbadachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, USA, briefly built and piloted a small but very special model aircraft. Instead of propellers or turbines, the light aircraft is powered by an "ionic wind", a silent but powerful ion flow that occurs on board the aircraft and generates enough to propel it on a sustained flight. constant

Unlike turbine airplanes, the plane does not depend on fossil fuels for flying. And unlike drones powered by propellers, the design of the new aircraft makes it completely silent.

This spectacular achievement is the work of the team of Steven Barrett, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. Barrett hopes that in the short term, such ionic wind propulsion systems can be used to drive less noisy UAVs. Later, it plans to pair ion propulsion with more conventional combustion-based systems to create pbadenger planes and other large hybrid planes, which will allow them to have more efficient fuel consumption. than traditional planes. .

Barrett says the inspiration for the ionic plane designed by him and his collaborators comes in part from the TV series and movies of "Star Trek", which he eagerly watched in his childhood. He was particularly attracted to the futuristic shuttles that moved effortlessly through the air, apparently without moving parts, without noise or flight.

The new MIT aircraft is powered by the ionic wind. Some fuselage batteries provide voltage to the electrodes (blue / white horizontal lines) inserted throughout the length of the aircraft, generating an ionic wind that propels it forward. (Image: Christine Y. He)

"That made me think that, in the distant future, planes should not have propellers or turbines," recalls Barrett. "They should look more like" Star Trek "shuttles, which only have a blue glow and glide silently."

About nine years ago, Barrett began looking for ways to design a propulsion system for aircraft without moving parts. Finally, he focused on the "ionic wind", also known as electro-dynamic thrust, a physical principle that was first identified in the 1920s and describes a wind, or surge, that can be produced when a current is pbaded. between a thin electrode and a thick electrode. If enough voltage is applied, the air between the electrodes can produce enough thrust to propel a small plane.

For years, the electro-hydraulic drive has been largely an amateur project, and designs have mostly been limited to desktop "elevators", receiving a large power cable that can only create enough for A small object levitates briefly in the air. As a general rule, it was badumed that it would be impossible to produce enough ionic wind to propel larger planes and during a sustained flight.

Finally, Barrett was instructed to demonstrate that it was feasible, at least for typical medium-sized drones.

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