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Ionic Wind Thruster The New Jet Engine

Ionic wind thrusters have been discussed ever since the 1960s, but up till now they’ve been dismissed as impractical or suitable only for lightweight vehicles. However the MIT research team now believes that the technology could potentially power commercial airlines.

 Following a series of experiments, the MIT team announced that ionic thrusters could be more efficient than engines currently used in the aerospace industry. In their research, which was published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, they stated that ionic wind thrusters could produce 110 newtons of thrust per kilowatt, while a jet engine would produce 2 newtons per kilowatt.

 Steven Barrett, an assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, added that ionic thrusters are silent and invisible in infrared, as they give off no heat. “You could imagine all sorts of military or security benefits to having a silent propulsion system with no infrared signature,” says Barrett, who co-authored the paper with graduate student Kento Masuyama.

Source Article: MIT Develops Ionic Wind Thrusters As An Efficient Alternative To Jet Engines | Inhabitat - Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building 

Imagine an aircraft that is silent, invisible to infrared detectors, has zero emissions and can hover in an eerie manner that helicopters can’t. Now imagine it coming from technology currently used to suck dust out of living room air. That’s what a team of researchers at MIT is doing. They've conducted a study that indicates that ionic thrusters, currently a science fair curiosity, might one day take to the skies.

Ionic thrusters sound like something you’d find on a spacecraft, and the principle is similar to that of the ion drives being developed by NASA and other space agencies. However, where an ion drive works like a rocket in the vacuum of space, an ionic thruster is more like a jet engine.

If you want to see an ionic thruster in action, just have a look at one of those electrostatic dust collectors found in many homes. These work on the very simple idea of using an electrostatic charge to pull dust motes out of the air and collect them on metal panels. What does this have to do with flying? Put your hand against the grille of the dust collector and you’ll feel a very slight breeze – despite the fact that the collector has no moving parts. What’s moving it? Ionic wind.
The proper name for “ionic wind” is ElectroHydroDynamic (EHD) thrust. It’s been known since the 18th century that electricity can kick up a tiny air movement, but it wasn't until the 1960s that EHD was identified and developed by scientists and engineers such as air pioneer Major Alexander Prokofieff de Seversky, who developed much of the physics and patented the basic technology.


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