Scientists built an ‘ion drive’ propulsion system that actually works

[Mike Wehner]

• Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have built what they say is a first for aircraft engineering.
• The team says that it created a model plane that uses an "ion drive" propulsion system rather than traditional fuel.
• The test flight lasted just seconds, but it could be a sign of things to come and potentially important development with regards to the future of aircraft technology.

If there's one thing science fiction films and TV shows have taught us about the future of air travel it's that planes burning fossil fuels will eventually be relics of the past. That's probably a good thing, as fossil fuels aren't great for the environment, but what could possibly replace them?

We've already seen electric planes that use battery power to spin propellers, but that's pretty old-school, at least compared to what a team of scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has built. In a paper published in Nature, the researchers describe how they conceptualized and then built a small-scale version of a plane that uses an ion propulsion drive to allow for movement without any moving parts.

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Scientists built an ‘ion drive’ propulsion system that actually works originally appeared on BGR.com on Thu, 10 Dec 2020 at 18:41:08 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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