as a kid, steven barrett, an associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, would watch the movie and tv series ‘star trek’ during his free time. his young eyes would gaze upon the shuttle crafts, so futuristic and dystopian that they would glide through the horizon at a lightning speed. barrett noticed how these space crafts seemed frameless, bare of their moving parts such as the propellers, and noiseless. such an observation still influences him today to the extent that he thinks, in the long-term future, planes should be stripped of their turbines and propellers to be more like the shuttle crafts of ‘star trek’ in their glowing light. at MIT, the professor did just that.

MIT engineers, led by barrett, have introduced the world’s first plan without moving parts, bare from any propellers and turbines. the lightweight aircraft relies on an ‘ionic wind’, or the abundant flow of ions produced aboard the plane that generates enough force to thrust the plane over a steady and sustained flight. through this concept and design, the plane ditches the use of fossil fuels, an element that adds to its silent glide.

as the professor spoke to the university’s official news site, he describes how the plane is the first-ever sustained flight with no moving parts in the propulsion system. ‘this has potentially opened new and unexplored possibilities for aircraft which are quieter, mechanically simpler, and do not emit combustion emissions.’ the design weighs about five pounds and has a five-meter wingspan attached to thin wires resembling fences. these wires act as positively charged electrodes, while similarly arranged thicker wires, running along the back end of the plane’s wing, serve as negative electrodes.

the fuselage of the plane holds a stack of lithium-polymer batteries. barrett’s ion plane team included members of professor david perreault’s power electronics research group in the research laboratory of electronics, who designed a power supply that would convert the batteries’ output to a sufficiently high voltage to propel the plane. in this way, the batteries supply electricity at 40,000 volts to positively charge the wires via a lightweight power converter.

Read more here:

https://www.designboom.com/design/mit-engineers-built-an-airplane-that-flies-without-any-moving-parts-03-12-2022/