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Silent and Simple Ion Engine Powers a Plane with No Moving Parts


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Ionic plane

Computer-generated rendering of the EAD airplane.

Credit: MIT

Behind a thin white veil separating his makeshift lab from joggers at a Massachusetts Institute of Technology indoor track, aerospace engineer Steven Barrett recently test-flew the first-ever airplane powered with ionic wind thrusters—electric engines that generate momentum by creating and firing off charged particles.

From Scientific American
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