4 ms·

Well this particular plane runs off a battery...

saidajigumi 8y ago
And from TFA (sadly, the paper in Nature is referred to, but not properly cited) a main innovation is the development of a system that provides the required 40,000 volts from a battery in a form-factor amenable to small aircraft (think drone) usage.
- Varcht 8y ago
  Will make being a baggage handler pretty exciting.
superkuh 8y ago
Does it? As far as I can tell it doesn't exist outside of the person's mind. Having played around with lifters myself using balsa, al foil, and a rectified neon sign transformer I just don't think the physics can work out. And there's no physical plane photos or videos to support otherwise. Until then I'm sticking with this being absurd. That said, ionization does have it's place in aircraft in terms of controlling attachment or detachment of turbulent airflow over wings. It can significantly improve fuel consumption by reducing drag. But it is not a viable propulsion source. At least not on Earth for things larger than a meter or so.
- hsnewman 8y ago
  Here is a time lapse of the flight: http://electricaircraft.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/actual_flight_time_lapse-300x168.jpg http://electricaircraft.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/a...
  - eT8AZithxooKei6 8y ago
    Larger: http://electricaircraft.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/actual_flight_time_lapse.jpg http://electricaircraft.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/a...
- hnphillipj 8y ago
  https://youtu.be/boB6qu5dcCw?t=128 https://youtu.be/boB6qu5dcCw?t=128 >But it is not a viable propulsion source. At least not on Earth for things larger than a meter or so. It's 5m wide
  - superkuh 8y ago
    Thanks for providing that. It does prove my point though. That plane is not flying at all. It is falling with style. The initial forward momentum is from the launch rail, not from the electrostatic propulsion.
    - hnphillipj 8y ago
      https://sci-hub.tw/https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0707-9 https://sci-hub.tw/https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-01... see the top of page 534, figure b. You are correct that the initial forward momentum is from the launch rail, but the graph clearly shows that the ion engine provides thrust. Is the title of the HN submission misleading? Yes. Did the plane achieve flight with the ion engine alone? No. Was the plane able to maintain and gain altitude because of the ion engine? Yes. A step forward in the right direction but not as much of a breakthrough as the submission title would have you think. >As far as I can tell it doesn't exist outside of the person's mind. Based brah. I'm being serious when I say that I think HN needs more of this type of comment. They seem to love rigidity in comments, but not any bluntness or banter thrown in there.
      - erbium 8y ago
        Nice work finding the paper.
      - Junk_Collector 8y ago
        Thanks for finding the paper. Sucking almost 3A out of the battery, it's not going to fly very long, but that's also a fairly inefficient power converter design. There is lots of room for improvement.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
- NelsonMinar 8y ago
  "As far as I can tell it doesn't exist outside of the person's mind." Why would you say something like this? You sound arrogant and stupid. You are talking about an article which says "he built the thing and flew it". And you deny that based on your balsa wood experiments? Someone else has done you the favor of posting a video of it flying. Perhaps you'll believe that?

And from TFA (sadly, the paper in Nature is referred to, but not properly cited) a main innovation is the development of a system that provides the required 40,000 volts from a battery in a form-factor amenable to small aircraft (think drone) usage.

Varcht 8y ago
Will make being a baggage handler pretty exciting.

superkuh 8y ago

Does it? As far as I can tell it doesn't exist outside of the person's mind. Having played around with lifters myself using balsa, al foil, and a rectified neon sign transformer I just don't think the physics can work out. And there's no physical plane photos or videos to support otherwise. Until then I'm sticking with this being absurd. That said, ionization does have it's place in aircraft in terms of controlling attachment or detachment of turbulent airflow over wings. It can significantly improve fuel consumption by reducing drag. But it is not a viable propulsion source. At least not on Earth for things larger than a meter or so.

hsnewman 8y ago
Here is a time lapse of the flight: http://electricaircraft.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/actual_flight_time_lapse-300x168.jpg http://electricaircraft.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/a...
- eT8AZithxooKei6 8y ago
  Larger: http://electricaircraft.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/actual_flight_time_lapse.jpg http://electricaircraft.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/a...
hnphillipj 8y ago
https://youtu.be/boB6qu5dcCw?t=128 https://youtu.be/boB6qu5dcCw?t=128 >But it is not a viable propulsion source. At least not on Earth for things larger than a meter or so. It's 5m wide
- superkuh 8y ago
  Thanks for providing that. It does prove my point though. That plane is not flying at all. It is falling with style. The initial forward momentum is from the launch rail, not from the electrostatic propulsion.
  - hnphillipj 8y ago
    https://sci-hub.tw/https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0707-9 https://sci-hub.tw/https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-01... see the top of page 534, figure b. You are correct that the initial forward momentum is from the launch rail, but the graph clearly shows that the ion engine provides thrust. Is the title of the HN submission misleading? Yes. Did the plane achieve flight with the ion engine alone? No. Was the plane able to maintain and gain altitude because of the ion engine? Yes. A step forward in the right direction but not as much of a breakthrough as the submission title would have you think. >As far as I can tell it doesn't exist outside of the person's mind. Based brah. I'm being serious when I say that I think HN needs more of this type of comment. They seem to love rigidity in comments, but not any bluntness or banter thrown in there.
    - erbium 8y ago
      Nice work finding the paper.
    - Junk_Collector 8y ago
      Thanks for finding the paper. Sucking almost 3A out of the battery, it's not going to fly very long, but that's also a fairly inefficient power converter design. There is lots of room for improvement.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
NelsonMinar 8y ago
"As far as I can tell it doesn't exist outside of the person's mind." Why would you say something like this? You sound arrogant and stupid. You are talking about an article which says "he built the thing and flew it". And you deny that based on your balsa wood experiments? Someone else has done you the favor of posting a video of it flying. Perhaps you'll believe that?