Ground effect planes and to a lesser extent gliders are cheating and we can’t forget that.
But taking an ion propulsion system that previously only worked in vacuum and making it work at sea level is not nothing. I haven’t seen anything here to convince me it’s pure parlor trick. It’s part parlor trick for sure, but the sort that opens wallets.
How were they cheating? Lifters don't use ground effect at all. With a proper power supply, they have a power/weight ratio much greater than one. Does a helicopter or F22 Raptor cheat to fly?
> taking an ion propulsion system that previously only worked in vacuum
You misunderstand what this is. This ionizes air and accelerates it towards a surface with opposite charge. This design will not work in a vacuum, since it requires atmosphere [1] as a propellant. I built one of these thrusters when I was a kid using an old TV power supply. It takes some wire, aluminum foil, tens of thousands of volts, and a stomach for inefficiency (for example, the mentioned plane has a thrust of 6.25N/kW, the motor/prop on a drone is nearly 10x that). The only difference between a lifter and this is the direction of thrust, and the use of wings to supply lift, which all aircraft with a power to weight ratio less than 1.0 necessarily do. The accomplishment, and it is impressive, is the engineering to make it all light/efficient, given the terrible efficiency of these types of motors, while using the advancements in the energy density of batteries to allow it to be integrated.
> I haven’t seen anything here to convince me it’s pure parlor trick
I don't understand this. I don't think anyone is saying it's a parlor trick. It's impressive engineering. I just don't think it's accurate to say it's the first [2]. 20 years ago, there were sites with people attaching these to gliders (although, I can't find them anymore).
That doesn’t sound the same to me.