ELECTRIC AIRCRAFT

The MIT Electric Aircraft Initiative is assessing and developing the potential for sustainable and silent electric aircraft... The environmental performance of aviation has improved significantly in recent decades, but progress in both noise and emissions is becoming more difficult to achieve. Aviation is a particular challenge because the optimal altitude for flight corresponds to the most sensitive altitude of the atmosphere, especially when it come the creation of artificial line shaped clouds called contrails. These effects serve to magnify the impact of aviation CO 2 emissions by around a factor of two... In many environmental sensing and national security applications the objectives are similar - efficiency and silence are the goal. And if one imagines a future in which drones fill the skies over our cities, the importance of silence and low or no emissions becomes more apparent.

Primary location: Cambridge United States