The University of Massachusetts, the MIT known to everyone, built the first plane to fly without moving parts using ionization. An invention that we may see is applied to extremely quiet drones as well as for hybrid aircraft.
Aircraft, whether they carry an internal combustion engine that produces exhaust gases or carry an electric motor, cannot avoid noise pollution. That is, the noise. And this is because they fly supported by moving parts that propel the air and against extension and the plane itself. MIT researchers, however, are coming to overturn a story of almost 100 years, since the Reit brothers flew the first 1903 airplane.
The researchers at MIT have built and successfully flew an ion aircraft that did not uses movable parts. The large aircraft, with a wingspan of 5 meters, weighs about 5 kilograms and carries a series of thin wires, which are placed like a horizontal fence along and under the leading edge of the plane's wing. The wires act as positively charged electrodes, while similarly arranged thicker wires, running along the trailing edge of the airplane wing, serve as negative electrodes.
The fuselage of the airplane contains an array batteries lithium-polymer. Special machines convert the battery current to 40.000 volts by positively charging the cables.
Once the cables are positively charged, they attract and release negatively charged electrons from surrounding air molecules, like a giant magnet that attracts iron chips. The air molecules that remain behind are ionized and in turn are attracted by the negatively charged electrodes at the rear of the airplane wings.
As the newly formed ion cloud flows toward the negatively charged wires, each ion collides with millions times with other air molecules, creating a thrust that propels the aircraft forward.
Aircraft powered by ionized winds are not a new invention. THE technology has been around for years, but until now the machines operated on a bench as they were limited by the cables that connected these machines to high voltage power supplies. The solution here was a custom battery-powered power supply that could produce the necessary power for a 60-meter flight, which was the length of the indoor field where the tests took place. Of course in all the tests there was no noise since there are no moving parts.
There is a very long way to see this technology in the sky. However, the potential of this invention is evident. Surely at some point you will see very quiet aircraft, such as drones, that will not emit irritating noise. There could also be hybrid planes that could improve fuel efficiency. And since there are no moving parts, the ion-impulse aircraft could be more reliable than the conventional ones.
Watch the relevant MIT video below:
