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Silent Aircraft using Ion Drive Mechanism

H. A. Chattha and Jawad Naseer

Abstract—Noise pollution is among the hottest topics of today.

Air crafts are the second largest source of noise and air pollution.
Noise pollution can be reduced by making aircrafts silent and it
can be accomplished by using the Ion Drive Mechanism. Ion
Drive Mechanism works on the principle of Electrohydrody-
namics, utilizing Electrical Energy to create air thrust. A very
high voltage between oppositely charged electrodes ionizes air
to propel the aircraft. Cloud of ionized air is pushed back in
reaction to which aircraft is propelled in the forward direction.
The thrust produced by Electrohydrodynamics is not enough to
accelerate heavy loads. This technique can only be utilized to
propel small planes and drones so it’s not quite practical yet.
Ion Drive planes have no moving parts like piston and propeller
so it doesn’t produce any noise, not even a humming sound.
This plane only consumes electrical energy, it doesn’t produce
any wasteful by-products like pollutants and sound which makes
it silent and pollution free.

I. BACKGROUND
Noise pollution is harmful for health and behavior. It may
cause hearing loss, Hypertension, high stress level, Insomnia
and Cardiovascular problems. Main causes of noise pollution
are transport, airplanes, trains and heavy machinery etc. Air-
planes are one of the primary source of noise pollution[2]. Air
crafts have banging sound which can damage eardrums.
There are three main causes of aircraft’s noise. One is the
mechanical sound produced by rotation of the engine parts,
most noticeable when fan blades reach supersonic speeds.
Second cause is their aerodynamic shape. The airflow around
the surfaces of the aircraft, especially when flying low at high
speeds produce bursting sound. Third is the noise from aircraft
system like cockpit and cabin pressurization and conditioning
systems, and Auxiliary Power units.
Aircraft can be made soundproof if above mentioned causes
are overcome. There can be different techniques to make
aircraft soundless. Sound waves are audible in range of 20-
20000 Hertz otherwise its inaudible. Aircraft can be “quiet”
if sound waves frequency is decreased below 20 Hertz or
increased above 20000 Hertz. Prolonged exposure to loud
noises within the audible range have long been known to cause
hearing loss over time. Even though they’re above the lower
limit of 20 Hz, these low-frequency sounds tend to be either
inaudible or barely audible, and people don’t always know
when they’re exposed to them. Research has shown that the
ear may be temporarily more prone to damage after being
exposed to 30 Hertz frequency for 90 seconds [1]. What if
frequency of aircraft is raised above 20000 Hertz?
All materials have a specific resonance frequency *1*.
If natural frequency resonance frequency become equal then
amplitude of vibrations increases drastically and even results in
H. A. Chattha, Jawad Naseer are with Pakistan Institute of Engineer-
ing and Applied Sciences, e-mail: haseebchattha01@gmail.com, e-mail:
jawda.naseer.7@gmail.com
Fig. 1. Different causes of noise pollution
destruction. Same is the case for material used in manufactur-
ing of plane (usually Aluminum), if we increase the frequency
(above 20000 Hz) of sound waves of aircraft (by some mean) it
may result in resonance.[3] (the graph for Aluminum is given
in fig 2) This choice to make aircraft silence also in vain.
There is also another choice to reduce sound frequency
to safe level by improving structure of present air crafts.
Engineers are doing their best to manufacture such a plane
structure which could reduce sound frequency to minimum
level. But such an efficient structure has not been manufactured
yet. Another choice may be to replace plane engines by
electrical batteries. This concept has remained a dream for
a long time. But now this dream has become a reality
II. E XPLANATION
Ion drive mechanism works on the principle of Electrohy-
drodynamics. Electrohydrodynamics (EHD), also known as
electro-fluid-dynamics (EFD) or electrokinetics, is the study
of the dynamics of electrically charged fluids. It is the study
of the motions of ionized particles or molecules and their
interactions with electric fields and the surrounding fluid. This
technique is used to produce electroaerodynamic thrust.
Aircraft consists of a certain wing span on which wires
are connected. The wires act as positively charged electrodes,

Fig. 2. Graph for Resonance Frequency of Aluminum
while similarly arranged thicker wires, running along the
back end of the plane’s wing, serve as negative electrodes.
Positive plate is called Emitter while negative plate is called
collector.[4]
Fig. 3. Emitter and Collector Electrodes
A.
1) Emitter: Emitter wire is made from a small gauge bare
conductive wire. While copper wire can be used, it does not
work quite as well as stainless steel. Similarly, thinner wire
such as 44 or 50 gauge tends to work well compared to
more common, larger sizes such as 30 gauge, as the stronger
electric field around the smaller diameter wire results in better
ionization.
2) Collector: The collector wire is shaped to provide
a smooth equipotential surface underneath the corona wire.
Variations of this include a wire mesh, parallel conductive
tubes, or a foil skirt with a smooth round edge. Any sharp
edges on the skirt will degrade the performance of the thruster,
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as this will generate ions of opposite polarity to those within
the thrust mechanism.
3) Air Gap: The air gap provides insulation between the
two electrodes and allows the ions generated at the emitter
to accelerate and transfer momentum to neutral air molecules,
before being stripped of their charge at the collector. The width
of the air gap is typically 1 mm / kV.
The fuselage of the plane holds a stack of Lithium-polymer
batteries. An electrical power supply is designed which con-
verts the battery voltages into a very high voltage upto 40000
volts. The +2000 volts in front electrodes and -20000 volts
in rear electrodes. Once the wires are energized, they act to
attract and strip away negatively charged electrons from the
surrounding air molecules, like a giant magnet attracting iron
filings.
Fig. 4. Emitter ionizing air molecules
The air molecules that are left behind are newly ionized, and
are in turn attracted to the negatively charged electrodes at the
back of the plane. As the newly formed cloud of ions flows
toward the negatively charged wires, each ion collides millions

of times with other air molecules, creating a thrust that propels
the aircraft forward. As ionized cloud of air collides with
neutral air and transfers its momentum to it. In this way neutral
air gains momentum and becomes accelerated to achieve new
velocity called Drift velocity *2*.
F = Ikd
F = Resulting Force
I = Current f low
d = Air gap
k = ion mobilit y coe f f icient
Fig. 5. Neutral air moving behind with gained momentum
As these neutral molecules are ejected from the ionocraft,
there are, in agreement with Newton’s Third Law of Motion,
equal and opposite forces, so the ionocraft moves in the
opposite direction with an equal force. There are hundreds of
thousands of molecules per second ejected from the device, so
the force exerted is comparable to a gentle breeze. Still, this
is enough to make a light balsa model lift its own weight. The
resulting thrust also depends on other external factors includ-
ing air pressure and temperature, gas composition, voltage,
humidity, and air gap distance.
Fig. 6. Operational Prototype
III. D ISCUSSION
The above presented idea may seem quite preposterous but
fortunately a group of researchers at MIT has already created
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an operational prototype. They have been working on it for a
while yet this project is still in its developmental stages. In
their experiments, they used a small aircraft structure which
weighed just 5 pounds but it still took a potential difference
of 40000 Volts to push the structure for some distance.
Every insulator has some breakdown voltage at which it
no longer behaves as one and starts conducting electricity
right through it. The insulator in our case is air which has a
breakdown voltage of 3kV/mm. It should be clear by now that
greater the load, greater the voltage we need to provide thrust
but as stated earlier there is a limit to voltage we can supply.
Wait. . . there’s more to it. At higher altitudes, the pressure and
temperature decrease concurrently causing the density of air
to fall rapidly. As the density decreases more and more thrust
is required to gain altitude hence the demand for more voltage
again increases.
That’s not difficult at all, right? From above discussion we
can estimate that it required a wing span of 6 meters to make
the prototype fly using an initial push, but to make a small
airplane able to fly, we need a wingspan as wide as a football
field.
IV. C ONCLUSION
As there’s no fuel combustion and moving parts in this
model means no pollutant or noise coming out of it so these
Silent Aircrafts are eco-friendly. The major problem we are
facing right now is global warming due to pollution. As stated
earlier air crafts are one of the major causes of pollution, we
can say that in impending future somehow we become able to
practically use this technique to fly small airplanes and drones,
it has the potential to change the orientation of technology.
V. A PPENDIX
*1* A resonant frequency is a natural frequency of vibration
determined by the physical parameters of the vibrating object.
*2* A drift velocity is the average velocity attained by charged
particles, such as electrons, in a material due to an electric field
VI. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
1) Steven Barrett, associate professor of aeronautics and
astronautics at MIT
2) Muhammad Abid , associate professor PIEAS
3) Ade Abdurab Co-founder SurEngin
R EFERENCES
[1] https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/09/sounds-you-
cant-hear-can-still-hurt-your-ears
[2] http://www.pollutionissues.com/Na-Ph/Noise-Pollution.
html
[3] https://www.google.com/search?q=resonance+frequenc
y+of+aluminum+graph&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved
=0ahUKEwis7arp55biAhWCsaQKHTYrBnUQ_AUIDigB&bi
w=1242&bih=524&dpr=1.1
[4] http://news.mit.edu/2018/first-ionic-wind-plane-no-movi
ng-parts-1121