Aircraft Is Nearly Silent, Weighs Only Five Pounds

A researcher at MIT has demonstrated an airplane that uses ionic wind as its propulsion system, creating an aircraft that flies nearly silently and weighs only about five pounds.

Science News reports that the initial results of the research by MIT aeronautics researcher Steven Barrett were published in the November 22 edition of the journal Nature. Barrett flew his ion-powered airplane 10 times at an indoor facility. It traveled as far as 148 feet in 10 seconds at a steady altitude, and even gained about a foot and a half in height over the course of the flight.

Ionic wind is created by generating a high-voltage electric field around an emitter ... a positively charged wire. The electricity causes electrons in the air to collide with atoms and molecules, releasing other electrons. The positively charged air molecules are drawn to the negatively charged wire, and the movement of the molecules between the two wires creates the ionic wind which pushes the plane forward.

The concept is very different from the one used in ionic thrusters that can help propel and steer spacecraft. Most scientists assumed that an aircraft that could carry enough batteries to generate the electronic field would be too heavy to fly. But after making some initial calculations to determine that it was possible, Barrett's team worked through the problems of optimizing various parts of the airplane, predicting how it would fly.

The plane that performed the best has a wingspan of about 15 feet and weighs just under five pounds. While the research is promising, it is unlikely that an ion-powered airliner probably not feasible. But the technology could be used to power small UAVs, according to Daniel Drew, an aerodynamics researcher at the University of California, Berkeley.

(Image provided by H. Xu et al via Nature)

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