An electric airplane without moving parts made its first flight

Your typical jet plane is filled with fast blades. We need the rotation of the turbines and propellers to create a thrust and fly away. Where do we go?

In an article published today in Nature, MIT researchers said they created and piloted the first aircraft that did not require moving parts. This experimental aircraft of 2.45 kg did not rotate the turbine blades to propel itself over 60 meters, the length of a school gym: it used electricity directly. .

If the technology could be upgraded, future aircraft would be much safer, quieter and easier to maintain. More importantly, it would eliminate combustion emissions because the process is fully battery powered.

The maiden flight was made possible through a process called electro-dynamic propulsion, an idea that has existed since the 1960s. The concept itself is much more difficult to visualize than a typical rotating propeller. It takes advantage of what is called the ionic wind.

Using very high voltages (in the case of the aircraft, 40,000 volts), the thruster generates ions in the air around two electrodes. The electric field created between them returns the ions of a smaller electrode to a larger one. While traveling, these ions collide with normal air molecules, creating the ionic wind and pushing the plane forward. Since the ions move between two fixed electrodes, no moving parts are needed to power the aircraft.

You may have seen this concept in action if you have a bladeless desktop fan. These fans use the same concept, but rather than moving a plane, technology keeps you cool

So why have not we used this technology in our aircraft since the beginning? When it was conceived in the 1960s, the researchers concluded that it could not create the level of thrust needed to maintain the leak. When Steven Barrett, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, took a closer look at this research in 2009, he was not deterred by these results. He saw untapped potential. "I was inspired by science fiction ideas about planes and spaceships," says Barrett. "I thought about what physics might allow."

Nine years – and many failures – later, Barrett and his group finally have a plane in flight. Just about. Do not forget that the test plane did not involve anyone or anything aboard. At this point, he can barely keep himself in the air, not to mention the cargo – and it's with the tests that take place in a gym with no wind and lasts only about 12 seconds.

There is still a long way to go before your trip from Los Angeles to New York can be done without moving parts, but it was still a milestone for aviation. "Even if it is still far from commercial gas turbine propulsion, electro-hydraulic propulsion could be a game-changer for short-range, low-payload drone flights," says Priyanka Dhopade, a researcher at the Oxford Thermofluids Institute.

While this type of propulsion may not be efficient enough for commercial aircraft, Barrett thinks it could be used with jet engines. He says that electroerodynamic propulsion systems can be integrated with the skin of an airplane and used to reinvigorate the air flowing in the plane. Currently, this air is found behind the plane, moving slowly and dragging it to the rear. The addition of new propulsion systems could eliminate this drag and increase energy efficiency.

This is what the MIT team plans to focus next, in addition to optimizing the prototype. "We only had a few years to develop this technology," says Barrett. "The classic propulsion is 100 years old, so we are late to catch up. But I think we can. "