Notes on ion powered aircraft

[Ed_S]

Over in a Monthly thread @hugo said this:

@hugo

• doing some experiments with ion propulsion for aircraft. I am in email contact with Ethan Krauss, who is very helpful and knowledgeable. He had the first self-contained (i.e. with battery and HV generator) VTOL aircraft. Several years before the MIT ion propelled plane. VTOL is more difficult than horizontal flight. His website: https://electronairllc.org/

It sounds very interesting! I found some related videos and started this new thread so we can have a discussion…

Ion drive: The first flight

Designing A Next-Gen Ionic Thruster! (For Flight)

Interview with inventor of the first self-contained ion-propelled aircraft

[hugo]

There are papers too:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-02766-9
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0707-9