News Solid state aircraft with ion-drive

[sekundant]

I read today a very interesting article at Nature about first flight of "solid state aircraft with ion-drive"

Well, it is not very impressive for the first sight: the "aircraft" rather looks like a toy, flight takes only 12 seconds to reach the maximum distance of 60 meters (200 feet). At the second sight, there is no moving aerodynamic parts such as propellers, so noise pollution is minimized and no engine with fuel drive existing.

Lead of developer team from MIT, Steve Barret describes the the flight of aircraft at the youtube video ".. should be more like what you see in Star Trek, with a kind of blue glow and something that silently glides through the air.”

I wish, I will live long enough to see the first long distance manned flight of an ion-drive aircraft.

 

[Santaman]

Interesting, doesn't state how well it scales though.

 

[publiusr]

This might actually scale up better than the augmenter-wing concept for vertical thrust
http://up-ship.com/blog/?p=39328

My guess is that this is best used on airships.

The skeleton of a rigid airship could serve in three ways--a backbone. If large/flat enough--a rectenna to absorb beamed energy propulsion, and where the skeleton breaks though--that is the ion wind generator--making the whole of the airship an air-warp nacelle

 

[Snaploud]

My guess is that this is best used on airships.

Several articles have theorized that this technology would be useful for creating pseudo-satellites.

A possible use case Barrett sees for the technology is to propel high-altitude pseudo satellites—long-winged, solar-powered aircraft that could be used to provide low-cost internet connectivity, or for weather monitoring or surveillance.


“If it’s solid state and solar, you’d hope it could stay up for months if not years at a time without maintenance,” he says.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremy...engine-mit-solid-state-aircraft/#25c693dd468d

 

[publiusr]

That actually worries me--along with this breakthrough:
https://physicsworld.com/a/neutrino-based-communication-is-a-first/

That could deal a blow to rocket makers.

 

[Dryson]

That actually worries me--along with this breakthrough:
https://physicsworld.com/a/neutrino-based-communication-is-a-first/

That could deal a blow to rocket makers.

Whale blubber replaced wood as the source of lighting homes that was then replaced by coal, natural gas and nuclear power. One day chemical rockets will be replaced by plasma energy sources.

 

[publiusr]

They are working on that for in-space use.

You are always going to need chemical rockets for some things.

Don't sneeze at them
They could still run down our interstellar visitor
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2018/...sus-new-horizon-pluto-and-europa-clipper.html