A silent, electric plane inspired by Star Trek has no moving parts in its propulsion system [View all]

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A silent, electric plane inspired by Star Trek has no moving parts in its propulsion system
Washington Post, 11/21/2018

The first successful flight of the experimental plane ended badly. The plane, which weighs about 5.5 pounds and has a wingspan of 16 feet, flew steadily, but the researchers didn’t cut the power quickly enough, and it kept going until it crashed into the far wall of the gymnasium. The entire test flight, conducted last December at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, took about 15 seconds.

“That’s what you call an emotional journey, I guess, starting off with a successful flight and ending with a pile of plane,” said Steven Barrett, an MIT professor of aerospace engineering.

The researchers rebuilt the plane and then flew it nine more times, and on Wednesday, Barrett and his colleagues published in the journal Nature what might someday be viewed as a breakthrough paper in aeronautics. They have invented a solid-state airplane. It runs on electricity from batteries. It makes no noise. It generates no exhaust. Its propulsion system has no moving parts. It has no propellers, no turbines, not even a twisted rubber band.

This futuristic aircraft was inspired by Star Trek and the graceful journeys of the starship Enterprise, Barrett told reporters in a teleconference. He said that he’s a Trekkie and that about a decade ago, when he began pondering new forms of aircraft propulsion, he imagined that in the future there should be “planes that fly silently with no moving parts.”

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