The EAD Airframe Version 2, or V2, is a small American unmanned aircraft. It has been described as '
solid state
Solid state, or solid matter, is one of the four fundamental states of matter.
Solid state may also refer to:
Electronics
* Solid-state electronics, circuits built of solid materials
* Solid state ionics, study of ionic conductors and their u ...
', as there are no moving parts in the propulsion system; all thrust is powered by the phenomenon known as
ion wind
Ion wind, ionic wind, corona wind or electric wind is the airflow induced by electrostatic forces linked to corona discharge arising at the tips of some sharp conductors (such as points or blades) subjected to high voltage relative to ground. Ion ...
.
It is being developed at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics by engineer Steven Barrett (associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics) and others.
It is claimed to be the first ion-propelled
airplane.
''without'' wings have existed since the 1960s.
Design and development
The aircraft is a
flying wing
A flying wing is a tailless fixed-wing aircraft that has no definite fuselage, with its crew, payload, fuel, and equipment housed inside the main wing structure. A flying wing may have various small protuberances such as pods, nacelles, blis ...
made of very light materials, including carbon-fibre, shrink-wrap plastic, balsa wood,
polystyrene
Polystyrene (PS) is a synthetic polymer made from monomers of the aromatic hydrocarbon styrene. Polystyrene can be solid or foamed. General-purpose polystyrene is clear, hard, and brittle. It is an inexpensive resin per unit weight. It is a ...
, and
Kevlar.
It has a very wide open frame serving as a fuselage, in and below which thin wires are strung horizontally. The aircraft weighs just over and has a wingspan of .
The MIT engineers were able fine tune the aircraft to find the best design and power requirement by employing a technique known as
geometric programming.
It can fly at around .
Propulsion
The aircraft is an example of an
ionocraft, which is powered by an
ionic wind generated through controlled electrical discharge.
The fuselage contains a stack of 54 lithium-polymer batteries.
With the aid of a power supply unit these deliver a minimum of 20,000 volts of electrical potential, producing enough corona discharge to propel the aircraft. Air at the front of the wing is ionized by an electrical field near thin filaments of wire called emitters. Elsewhere on the
airframe
The mechanical structure of an aircraft is known as the airframe. This structure is typically considered to include the fuselage, undercarriage, empennage and wings, and excludes the propulsion system.
Airframe design is a field of aerospa ...
, collectors attract these positively charged ions. As the ions travel toward the collectors, they collide with air molecules. Energy is transferred from the ions to the air molecules, thereby producing air flow; the thrust propels the aircraft forwards, fast enough to gain flying speed, with the conventional wings providing
aerodynamic lift.
Operational history
The aircraft has flown at least eleven times, in the duPont Athletic Center, an indoor gymnasium on the MIT campus.
The flight distances have been constrained by the long space within the gymnasium, and the aircraft normally flies about off the ground.
References
External links
MIT website page showing video of aircraft in flight
{{Emerging technologies, transport=yes
2010s United States experimental aircraft
Unmanned aerial vehicles of the United States