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Ionocraft
An ion-propelled aircraft or ionocraft is an aircraft that uses electrohydrodynamics (EHD) to provide lift or thrust in the air without requiring combustion or moving parts. Current designs do not produce sufficient thrust for crewed flight or useful loads. History Origins The principle of ionic wind propulsion with corona-generated charged particles was discovered soon after the discovery of electricity with references dating to 1709 in a book titled ''Physico-Mechanical Experiments on Various Subjects'' by Francis Hauksbee. VTOL "lifter" experiments American experimenter Thomas Townsend Brown spent much of his life working on the principle, under the mistaken impression that it was an anti-gravity effect, which he named the Biefeld–Brown effect. Since his devices produced thrust in the direction of the field gradient, regardless of the direction of gravity, and did not work in a vacuum, other workers realized that the effect was due to EHD. VTOL ion-propelled aircraf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Townsend Brown
Thomas Townsend Brown (March 18, 1905 – October 27, 1985) was an American inventor whose research into odd electrical effects led him to believe he had discovered a type of anti-gravity caused by strong electric fields. Instead of being an anti-gravity force, what Brown observed has generally been attributed to electrohydrodynamics, the movement of charged particles that transfer their momentum to surrounding neutral particles in the air, also called "ionic drift" or " ionic wind". For most of Brown's life, he attempted to develop devices based on his ideas, trying to promote them for use by industry and the military. The phenomena came to be called the "Biefeld–Brown effect" and " electrogravitics". Brown's research influenced some amateur experimenters who build " ionic propulsion lifters" powered by high voltage. There are still claims that Brown discovered anti-gravity, an idea popular with the unidentified flying object (UFO) community and spawning many conspiracy theories ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Prokofieff De Seversky
Alexander Nikolaievich Prokofiev de Seversky () (June 7, 1894 ( N.S.) – August 24, 1974) was a Russian-American aviation pioneer, inventor, and influential advocate of strategic air power. Early life Of noble Russian parentage, Seversky was born in Tiflis, Russian Empire (now Tbilisi, Georgia). He entered a military school at age 10. Seversky's father was one of the first Russian aviators to own an aircraft (a modified Blériot XI built by Mikheil Grigorashvili) and by the age of 14, when Seversky entered the Imperial Russian Naval Academy, his father had already taught him how to fly. Graduating in 1914 with an engineering degree, Lieutenant Seversky was serving at sea with a destroyer flotilla when World War I began.De Seversky 1961, p. 15. World War I Seversky was selected for duty as a naval aviator, transferring to the Military School of Aeronautics at Sebastopol, Crimea. After completing a postgraduate program on aeronautics in 1914–15, he was reassigned as a pil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anti-gravity
Anti-gravity (also known as non-gravitational field) is the phenomenon of creating a place or object that is free from the force of gravity. It does not refer to either the lack of weight under gravity experienced in free fall or orbit, or to balancing the force of gravity with some other force, such as electromagnetism or aerodynamic lift. Anti-gravity is a recurring concept in science fiction. "Anti-gravity" is often used to refer to devices that look as if they reverse gravity even though they operate through other means, such as lifters, which fly in the air by moving air with electromagnetic fields. Historical attempts at understanding gravity The possibility of creating anti-gravity depends upon a complete understanding and description of gravity and its interactions with other physical theories, such as general relativity and quantum mechanics; however, no quantum theory of gravity has yet been found. During the summer of 1666, Isaac Newton observed an apple falling fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wingless Electromagnetic Air Vehicle
The Wingless Electromagnetic Air Vehicle (WEAV) is a Aircraft#Heavier-than-air – aerodynes, heavier than air flight system developed at the University of Florida, funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory#Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Air Force Office of Scientific Research. The WEAV was invented in 2006 by Dr. Subrata Roy (scientist), Subrata Roy, plasma physicist, aerospace engineering professor at the University of Florida, and has been a subject of several patents.Japanese Patent no. 5,220,742 granted on March 15, 2013. The WEAV employs no moving parts, and combines the aircraft structure, propulsion, energy production and storage, and control subsystems into one integrated system. Operating mechanism The WEAV uses a multitude of small electrodes covering the whole wetted area of the aircraft, in a multi-barrier plasma actuator (MBPA) arrangement, an enhancement over dual-electrode dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) systems using multiple layers of Dielectric, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ionic Wind
Ion wind, ionic wind, corona wind or electric wind is the airflow of charged particles 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 wind is an electrohydrodynamic phenomenon. Ion wind generators can also be considered electrohydrodynamic thrusters. The term "ionic wind" is considered a misnomer due to misconceptions that only positive and negative ions were primarily involved in the phenomenon. A 2018 study found that electrons play a larger role than negative ions during the negative voltage period. As a result, the term "electric wind" has been suggested as a more accurate terminology. This phenomenon is now used in an MIT ionic wind plane, the first solid-state plane, developed in 2018. History B. Wilson in 1750 demonstrated the recoil force associated to the same corona discharge and precursor to the ion thruster was the corona discharge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aircraft
An aircraft ( aircraft) is a vehicle that is able to flight, fly by gaining support from the Atmosphere of Earth, air. It counters the force of gravity by using either Buoyancy, static lift or the Lift (force), dynamic lift of an airfoil, or, in a few cases, direct Powered lift, downward thrust from its engines. Common examples of aircraft include airplanes, rotorcraft (including helicopters), airships (including blimps), Glider (aircraft), gliders, Powered paragliding, paramotors, and hot air balloons. Part 1 (Definitions and Abbreviations) of Subchapter A of Chapter I of Title 14 of the U. S. Code of Federal Regulations states that aircraft "means a device that is used or intended to be used for flight in the air." The human activity that surrounds aircraft is called ''aviation''. The science of aviation, including designing and building aircraft, is called ''aeronautics.'' Aircrew, Crewed aircraft are flown by an onboard Aircraft pilot, pilot, whereas unmanned aerial vehicles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
MIT EAD Airframe Version 2
The EAD Airframe Version 2, or V2, is a small American unmanned aircraft. It has been described as ' solid state', as there are no moving parts in the propulsion system; all thrust is powered by the phenomenon known as ion wind. 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. Tethered ion-propelled aircraft without wings have existed since the 1960s. These had ground-based high-voltage power supplied to the aircraft via a wire. Design and development The aircraft is a flying wing made of very light materials, including carbon-fiber, shrink-wrap plastic, balsa wood, polystyrene, 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 w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Massachusetts Institute Of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and science. In response to the increasing Technological and industrial history of the United States, industrialization of the United States, William Barton Rogers organized a school in Boston to create "useful knowledge." Initially funded by a land-grant universities, federal land grant, the institute adopted a Polytechnic, polytechnic model that stressed laboratory instruction in applied science and engineering. MIT moved from Boston to Cambridge in 1916 and grew rapidly through collaboration with private industry, military branches, and new federal basic research agencies, the formation of which was influenced by MIT faculty like Vannevar Bush. In the late twentieth century, MIT became a leading center for research in compu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ion (physics)
An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by convention. The net charge of an ion is not zero because its total number of electrons is unequal to its total number of protons. A cation is a positively charged ion with fewer electrons than protons (e.g. K+ (potassium ion)) while an anion is a negatively charged ion with more electrons than protons (e.g. Cl− (chloride ion) and OH− (hydroxide ion)). Opposite electric charges are pulled towards one another by electrostatic force, so cations and anions attract each other and readily form ionic compounds. Ions consisting of only a single atom are termed ''monatomic ions'', ''atomic ions'' or ''simple ions'', while ions consisting of two or more atoms are termed polyatomic ions or ''molecular ions''. If only a + or − is present, it indicates ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Air Propulsion
Propulsion is the generation of force by any combination of pushing or pulling to modify the translational motion of an object, which is typically a rigid body (or an articulated rigid body) but may also concern a fluid. The term is derived from two Latin words: '' pro'', meaning'' before'' or ''forward''; and '' pellere'', meaning ''to drive''. A propulsion system consists of a source of mechanical power, and a ''propulsor'' (means of converting this power into propulsive force). Plucking a guitar string to induce a vibratory translation is technically a form of propulsion of the guitar string; this is not commonly depicted in this vocabulary, even though human muscles are considered to propel the fingertips. The motion of an object moving through a gravitational field is affected by the field, and within some frames of reference physicists speak of the gravitational field generating a force upon the object, but for deep theoretic reasons, physicists now consider the curved ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Microgrant
A microgrant is a small sum of money distributed to an individual or organization, typically for hundreds or thousands of dollars, with the intent of enabling the recipient to develop or sustain an income-generating enterprise. Often they target individuals living on less than $1/day, extreme poverty, for the purpose of creating a sustainable livelihood or microenterprise. Recipients of microgrants can also be organizations or grassroots groups that are engaged in charitable activities. While microfinance and other financial services are intended to serve the poor, many of the poorest are either too risk-averse to seek out a loan, or do not qualify for a microloan or other form of microcredit. There are three primary types of microgrants; one is a small sum of money (~US$50–500) granted to an individual to start an income-generating project, another is a small grant (~$2,000–$10,000) to a community for an impact-oriented project and a third is a small grant to an individual for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electrical Energy
Electrical energy is the energy transferred as electric charges move between points with different electric potential, that is, as they move across a voltage, potential difference. As electric potential is lost or gained, work is done changing the energy of some system. The amount of work in Joule, joules is given by the product of the charge that has moved, in Coulomb, coulombs, and the potential difference that has been crossed, in Volt, volts. Electrical energy is usually sold by the kilowatt hour (1 kW·h = 3.6 MJ) which is the product of the power in kilowatts multiplied by running time in hours. Electric utilities measure energy using an electricity meter, which keeps a running total of the electrical energy delivered to a customer. Electric heating is an example of converting electrical energy into thermal energy. The simplest and most common type of electric heater uses electrical resistance to convert the energy. There are other ways to use electrical energy. Electri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
