Floooooopow-blog - Call Me Pow

Engineers fly first-ever plane with no moving parts

Since the first airplane took flight over 100 years ago, virtually every aircraft in the sky has flown with the help of moving parts such as propellers, turbine blades, and fans, which are powered by the combustion of fossil fuels or by battery packs that produce a persistent, whining buzz.

Now MIT engineers have built and flown the first-ever plane with no moving parts. Instead of propellers or turbines, the light aircraft is powered by an “ionic wind” – a silent but mighty flow of ions that is produced aboard the plane, and that generates enough thrust to propel the plane over a sustained, steady flight.

Unlike turbine-powered planes, the aircraft does not depend on fossil fuels to fly. And unlike propeller-driven drones, the new design is completely silent.

“This is the first-ever sustained flight of a plane with no moving parts in the propulsion system,” says Steven Barrett, associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. “This has potentially opened new and unexplored possibilities for aircraft which are quieter, mechanically simpler, and do not emit combustion emissions.”

He expects that in the near-term, such ion wind propulsion systems could be used to fly less noisy drones. Further out, he envisions ion propulsion paired with more conventional combustion systems to create more fuel-efficient, hybrid passenger planes and other large aircraft.

Barrett and his team at MIT have published their results in the journal Nature.

Keep reading

Me: what does "dress like a girl" even mean?

Also Me: Hey [ma shopping pal], I think the women's clothes are on that side of the store.

That's how I've felt since Colombia lost. I don't think the feeling will ever go away 😭😭😭

i know it’s been hours but i’m still sad.

*every december*

me: mom we need soap 

mom: that’ll be part of your christmas presents

I don't need help because I'm female, I need help because I'm human.

Some dude asked to help me carry some bags and I told him, "No, I'm fine, thanks." He kept asking so I was about to hand him a bag, but then he went on to say, "Men need to help Women." Nope! He lost his chance. I don't need a MAN to help me with something I can do myself. Especially not because I am a WOMAN. My grandma (who I was with at the time) tried to excuse his statement by saying the male person was just trying to use manners, but I won't stand for it. Saying it's "manners" just prevents us from acknowledging that statements like that make it okay to make women sound/feel inferior.

Me: *in tears* I don't know why I'm crying.

Therapist: Hey, it's okay for you to feel the way you feel.

Me: ... Thank you. I really needed to hear that.

Keep the flame going for those we have lost to suicide.