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).
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).
1. Theory of operation for the generation of the thrust: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion-propelled_aircraft#Electro...
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion-propelled_aircraft#cite_no...