{"id":2042,"date":"2019-02-04T10:00:10","date_gmt":"2019-02-04T18:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greentechgazette.com\/?p=2042"},"modified":"2019-02-04T10:00:13","modified_gmt":"2019-02-04T18:00:13","slug":"turbine-free-electric-aircraft-takes-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greentechgazette.com\/index.php\/electric-vehicles\/turbine-free-electric-aircraft-takes-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"Turbine-Free Electric Aircraft Takes Flight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For years, the dream of being able to\ncreate turbine-free aircraft has been slowly but surely moving towards\nfruition. The benefits of such a development are obvious: the likelihood of\nbreakdowns and crashes would be reduced for one, as would development costs and\ntimes, plus and added boost for the environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"MIT<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

However, a giant step towards making\nthis possible was taken in late 2018 when MIT researchers reported they had\ncarried out the first\never flight<\/a> of an electric plane\nthat has \u2018no moving parts\u2019 \u2013 awesome, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2.45kg aircraft has no spinning\nturbine blades, and was able to carry itself around 200 feet before coming back\ndown. It uses directly created electricity, creating a truly special starting\npoint for the future of the industry. While scaling is still part of the issue,\nif this could be upscaled then we could create much safer, simpler, more\neffective and more environmentally sound aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This would also help to remove emissions\nwhich are typical of most aircraft, as it would be powered by the use of a\nbattery alone. While this idea has been around for over 50 years, it is only\nnow that we are beginning to see it turn into a reality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact that it was able to produce\nas much as 40,000 volts for such a small device, though, shows how much work is\nstill needed to get this scaled up and to size. These high voltages are then\nused to ensure the thruster can generate ions in the air, which are then used\nto create an electric field, offering the ability to move ions from the smaller\nelectrodes to the larger ones. The end result is that an ionic\nwind takes place<\/a>, pushing the plane forward without any of the usual tools\nneeded to make it fly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\nrevolutionary step forward<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The project is being pushed by MIT\nprofessor or aeronautics and astronautics, Steven Barrett, who said: \u201cI was\ninspired by the science fiction ideas of planes and spacecraft. I thought about\nwhat physics could allow that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the best part of a decade of\ntrial and error, it looks like things might finally be changing with the\ncreation of this aircraft. While nobody was onboard the aircraft, nor was\nanything actually onboard, it was an impressive starting point. The wind-free\nnature of the testing ground, though, means that this is still only a small but\nsignificant step in the right direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, don\u2019t be expecting to get any\nconnecting flights across the continents using one of these anytime soon. As\nBarrett made clear, though, this is only the beginning: \u201cWe\u2019ve only had a few\nyears to develop this technology. Conventional propulsion has had 100 years, so\nwe have some catching up to do. But I think we can.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For years, the dream of being able to create turbine-free aircraft has been slowly but surely moving towards fruition. The benefits of such a development are obvious: the likelihood of breakdowns and crashes would be reduced for one, as would development costs and times, plus and added boost for the environment. However, a giant step […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-electric-vehicles"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greentechgazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greentechgazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greentechgazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greentechgazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greentechgazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2042"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.greentechgazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2045,"href":"https:\/\/www.greentechgazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2042\/revisions\/2045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greentechgazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greentechgazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greentechgazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}