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Ionic thrust instead of reactive

15.04.2013

It is possible that in the near future there will be the first light aircraft powered by practically silent and environmentally friendly jet propulsion. Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) conducted a series of calculations and experiments and found that atmospheric ion thrusters can be much more efficient than previously thought.

In fact, the phenomenon of electrohydrodynamic thrust, or simply ionic wind, was discovered back in 1960. Its essence is as follows: when the current passes between two electrodes, one of which is thinner than the other, an air flow is created. If you apply enough voltage to the conductors, you can get a very powerful air jet, which will be enough to keep the plane in the air.

Unfortunately, this no doubt attractive type of jet engine has long been a game for engineers and conjurers, as it was considered not powerful enough to create "serious" jet propulsion. Some scientists have suggested that atmospheric ion propulsion engines are extremely inefficient: they require a huge amount of electricity with not very high thrust.

However, calculations and experiments by MIT experts have shown that under certain conditions, ion thrusters can be a much more efficient source of thrust than conventional jet engines. In their experiments, they found that the ionic wind could deliver up to 110 newtons of thrust per kilowatt, compared to 2 newtons per kilowatt for a conventional jet engine. Thus, the ion wind is effectively used on some types of aircraft, primarily on small light aircraft. At the same time, ion engines are almost silent and invisible in the infrared range, since they do not emit a huge amount of heat, like traditional jet engines.

MIT has developed a basic design for an efficient ion thruster. The ion wind production setup consists of three parts: a very thin copper electrode (emitter), a thick aluminum tube (collector) and an air gap between them. The whole structure is assembled on a light frame, in which wires are laid to connect the collector and emitter to the power supply. When a voltage is applied, the field gradient "pulls" electrons from neighboring air molecules and ionized molecules are strongly repelled from the emitter and attracted to the collector. In this case, the ion cloud captures the surrounding neutral air molecules and creates jet thrust.

The ion thruster showed the greatest efficiency at a low air jet velocity. In other words, the ionic wind is better used to slowly move large amounts of air, rather than accelerate small volumes to supersonic speeds. This means that it is best to use the ion engine on slow aircraft, in which the air intakes for the ion wind will be located virtually over the entire surface. This immediately suggests low-profile unmanned reconnaissance aircraft with a large wingspan.

MIT calculations show the high voltage requirements of an ion thruster: a small aircraft would need a power source that could deliver hundreds or even thousands of kilovolts. The voltages must be enormous, but MIT believes that they can be obtained from ultralight solar panels and fuel cells.

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Smartphone Fujitsu Arrows A 202F 30.06.2013

Until the end of June, the Japanese telecommunications corporation SoftBank will start selling the powerful smartphone Arrows A 202F, developed by Fujitsu.

The device uses a Snapdragon 600 processor, which contains four Krait 300 cores with a clock frequency of 1,7 GHz and an Adreno 320 graphics accelerator. A 5-inch touchscreen display has a resolution of 1080x1920 pixels (Full HD format).

The smartphone has 2 GB of RAM and a built-in storage of 64 GB; expandable with a microSD card. The equipment includes Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n/ac) and Bluetooth 4.0 wireless adapters, a 13,1-megapixel camera with autofocus, an NFC microchip, a 1 Seg digital television receiver, an infrared port and a micro USB 2.0.

The smartphone is made in a waterproof case. Dimensions are 139x69x9,8 mm, weight - 158 g. The role of the operating system is played by Android 4.2 Jelly Bean; GSM and UMTS mobile networks are supported. Battery capacity - 3 mAh.

The Arrows A 202F will be available in pink, white, black and blue.

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