An electric plane with no moving parts
Your typical jet plane is full of fast-moving blades. We need the spinning of turbines and propellers to create thrust and let us take to the skies. Or do we?
In a paper out today in Nature, MIT researchers report that they have created and flown the first plane that doesn’t require any moving parts. This 2.45-kilogram (5.4-pound) experimental aircraft did not spin turbine blades to propel itself 60 meters (200 feet, the length of a school gym): it used electricity directly.
If the technology could be scaled up, it would produce future aircraft that are far safer, quieter, and easier to maintain. Most important, it would eliminate combustion emissions, since the process is powered entirely by battery.
The inaugural flight was made possible by a process known as electroaerodynamic propulsion, an idea that has been around since the 1960s. The concept itself is a lot harder to visualize than a typical spinning propeller. It takes advantage of what’s known as ionic wind.
Using very high voltages—in the plane’s case, 40,000 volts—the thruster generates ions in the air around two electrodes. The electric field created between these throws the ions from a smaller electrode over to a larger one. These ions collide with normal air molecules while traveling, creating the ionic wind and pushing the plane forward. Since the ions are moving between two stationary electrodes, no moving parts are required to power the plane.
So why haven’t we been using this technology in our planes all along? When it was conceived of in the 1960s, researchers came to the conclusion that it couldn’t create the level of thrust needed to sustain flight. When Steven Barrett, an MIT professor of aeronautics and astronautics, took a closer look at this research in 2009, he wasn’t deterred by those results. He saw untapped potential. “I was inspired by the science fiction ideas of planes and spacecraft,” says Barrett. “I thought about what physics could allow that.”
FiveWordsForTheFuture - Dec 16, 2018 | Drones, Electricity, Energy, Transportation
Tagged | electric field, electroaerodynamic propulsion, ionic wind
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FiveWordsForTheFuture nasce per aiutare a riconoscere e capire l'innovazione, a immaginare il futuro nel senso di pensarsi in un tempo possibile, prossimo e concreto.
FiveWordsForTheFuture has been realized to help people in identifying and understanding innovation. Its aim is to imagine Our Future, through an inquiry into its concrete possibilities and by looking forward to those next, near realities that are going to come.
