Important Innovations Collection

Turning Air Friction into Electrical Energy For Electric Planes Source:  Eather One by Michael Borikowski Green, Clean Flying A new electric aircraft concept, named The Eather One, is powered by pure air.  Specifically, stratospheric air friction to create electric energy to fly the plane.  The air friction can be seen in action behind a high flying jet that leaves a plume of white smoke across the sky in its wake.  The plume holds for quite some time because there is very little air circulation in the stratosphere.  When a high speed aircraft cuts through the higher atmosphere, it generates tremendous air friction and vibrations.  Tapping into that tremendous source of energy is the concept behind Eather One that future aircraft may capitalize on. Electric Flying with Nanogenerators on the Wings The concept plane is equipped with triboelectric nanogenerators on its wings and across the top of the aircraft. The  nanogenerators capture t...

Understanding Air Flows Around Hypersonic and Supersonic Vehicles Source:  University of Buffalo 3D computer simulation of turbulence at high speed air flow Eliminating Turbulence The future holds the promise of hypersonic flights taking you from New York to London in a hour.  But getting from here to there is still a big aerospace engineering challenge.  There is a lot engineers still don't know about how the air flows when vehicles hit hypersonic speeds of 3.836 mph plus. That understanding is critical concerning turbulence, which affects how the aircraft can maneuver through the atmosphere. University of Buffalo Research A team at the University of Buffalo is attempting to solve this long standing problem associated with high speed aerodynamics. They're taking an innovative approach rather than using traditional wind tunnels.  They're using direct numerical simulations (DNS) with high performance computing to generate 3D computer simulations of turbulence...