Aeronautics

It is not a cinematographic creation or fruit of the imagination of a science fiction writer. It is technology, science and reality, thanks to a group of researchers from MIT (Institute of Technology of Massachusetts.)

.) They have managed to fly an airplane for nine seconds, propelled solely by an ion engine.The first step for a future of aircraft more clean and silent.

An electric field accelerates the ions in a fluid, formed by ionic wind, in which propellers or turbines do not intervene, nor fossil components such as kerosene or any other petroleum derivative.

Everything indicates that this small step towards a more sustainable solution in aviation, can start a much larger project, not to propel commercial flights, but to make them quieter and emit less greenhouse gases.

The aircraft manufactured by the MIT scientists, led by Steven Barret, of the Department of Aeronautics and Austronautics of this American university, is five meters wide, weighs only 2.45 kg and is capable of a speed of 4.8 meters per mile. second. In an MIT gym, the researchers were able to make it fly 60 meters away from the ground. In the coming decades, drones or ships that use ionic wind could include secondary propulsion systems, dedicated to saving energy and potentially added to solar panels.

We are facing a great challenge of aeronautics that goes through finding solutions of lower fossil consumption. Can we get it?

Source: Nature.