Well, this is cool and, indeed, right out of the pages of science fiction. It uses an array of highly charged electrodes on the wings, positively and negatively charged. The first in line ionizes nitrogen, which is therefore attracted to the second and, in the process, bumps oxygen molecules out of the way providing the driving force. The ‘engine’ is virtually silent, creates zero emissions in flight (the nitrogen ions regain their lost electron at the second electrode) and can be used to direct the plane, in principle, in any direction. The smart folk at MIT who built this flew a test plane indoors for only a couple of hundred metres and, right now, it is highly inefficient compared with the alternatives, but this has got to be the coolest air transport technology ever. It’s a frigging ion drive! Though these are early days and it will be some time before it is safe and efficient enough to be of general use, I love this idea. Lots of other uses, too, like hover-cars, boats that glide over water without touching it (or making noise), super-silent fans, hover-boards, and so on. Throw in some super-efficient solar power and we (or, for us oldies, our descendants) could be sailing on light before too long. I know next to nothing about the physics so maybe these are impossible or, in the case of fans, probably already exist (it’s an obvious technology), but the adjacent possible suddenly got much bigger.
Originally posted at: https://landing.athabascau.ca/bookmarks/view/6156561/this-new-%E2%80%98ion-drive%E2%80%99-airplane-flew-straight-out-of-science-fiction
