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 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. (EAD stands for electroerodynamic.) 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 (EMF) 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, 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==