Engineers Fly First-ever Plane With No Moving Parts

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

More Posts from Floooooopow-blog and Others

floooooopow-blog

7 years ago

Once upon a time you were a little girl with big dreams that you promised you’d make real one day. Don’t disappoint yourself.

T.W (via the-perfect-aesthetic)

6K notes View Post

floooooopow-blog

6 years ago

You can download this printable here!

Sorry for the major delay in posting this from when I said I would, but my ultimate college packing list is here! The bulk of this post is the printable itself, but I will include a few pieces of information here. I have included a bit of a preview above, but the actual document is 8 pages.

The document is a packing list, but I have also included some bonus information. I have notes about why I chose to include something or additional info written in green, and I have items that you shouldn’t bring written in red. Also, items that I think are extra important to bring are annotated with a pink star next to them!

If you want more information/details about what I think you should and shouldn’t bring, check out this post!

357 notes View Post

floooooopow-blog

6 years ago

I hate how everyone seems to have such high expectations for me, but the second I want something a little out of the ordinary for my life they act like I've lost my mind....

Sigh.