A new generation of flight. Scientists have successfully flown a silent, lightweight ionic wind-powered aircraft, that doesn’t depend on fossil fuels or batteries.
Researchers from MIT have flown a plane without moving parts for the first time, that could power silent drones.
It is powered by an ‘ion drive’ which uses high powered electrodes to ionise and accelerate air particles, creating an ‘ionic wind’. This wind drove a 5m wide craft across a sports hall.
Unlike the ion drives which have powered space craft for decades, this new drive uses air as the accelerant.
Steven Barrett, associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, explains:
“This is the first-ever sustained flight of a plane with no moving parts in the propulsion system. This has potentially opened new and unexplored possibilities for aircraft which are quieter, mechanically simpler, and do not emit combustion emissions.”
Ion propulsion paired with more conventional combustion systems to create more fuel-efficient, hybrid passenger planes and other large aircraft.
source MIT
Surprisingly, the MIT ion propelled glider was NOT “the first ion propelled aircraft of any kind to carry its power supply,” as MIT claims in Their paper and video. The real first such device in history to carry its onboard power supply is called the “Self Contained Ion Powered Aircraft.” It is protected by US Patent 10,119,527, that has been in effect since 2014. It has a far higher power to weight ratio and efficiency level, than the MIT glider. You can find more than ample substantiation for these facts on google. It is about carrying a power supply with ion propulsion, not size. (A much larger externally powered craft was tested by the Japanese in 2003.)
electronairllc.org