Researchers at MIT have developed a plane capable of flying without any moving parts, reports MIT Technology Review. The feat was achieved using electroaerodynamic propulsion, which uses a pair of electrodes to push around ions and create ionic wind. The phenomenon has been known about since the 1960s (in fact, Apple even considered using it to cool its laptops back in 2012), but this is the first time it’s been used to propel a plane.
That said, this ‘plane’ is an uncrewed model weighing just 2.45 kilograms. Scaling it up to the size of commercial aircraft would give it numerous safety, noise levels, maintenance, and environmental benefits over traditional planes, but doing so comes with enormous challenges. For one, the battery...
