On Thu, 3 Nov 2016 09:48:31 -0400, "Robert Clark"
wrote:

The commonly used name for these EHD devices made by amateurs is "lifters".
The problem with their not being able to fly independently is the power
supplies are so heavy. Look for example at the lifter he

How to: "Lifter" Power Supply.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfdsEVjBpBU

Quite commonly the lifters weigh, and the thrust they can produce, is in the
range of grams but the power supplies weigh in the range of kilograms. So
how do you solve that problem?

Let me give an analogy. Many people are aware of the technical innovations
the Wright brothers made to be able to develop a successful flying machine.
They made their own wind tunnel. They tested various air foils to find
efficient ones of high lift. They developed a warping wing technique for
steering.

However, not as well known is the one key innovation they made for which all
those other innovations would have been worthless. When many scientists of
the time after doing a mathematical analysis asserted that no heavier-than
air flying machine could work, oddly enough they were *right*. But the
problem was, they were basing this on the power sources widely known at the
time, steam engines. But the steam engines were so inefficient they could
not supply sufficient power for their weight. They were too heavy.

Around the time of the Wright brothers though the internal combustion
gasoline engine was coming into use for automobiles, but they were still too
heavy for the Wright brothers use. So the one *key* innovation the Wright
brothers made was that they designed and built their OWN lightweight
internal combustion engine.

Now, back to the EHD propulsion method. The power supplies are too heavy, so
what can we do about that? Well, you can make them out of lightweight
materials. That's a possible route to follow, but most amateur and even
professional experimenters have used ready made power supplies or used ready
made parts to build them. The result is they are all pretty standard weight
for the power they put out.

But let's analyze this further, *why* are the power supplies so heavy? It
turns out the reason they are so heavy is the voltage needed for the ion
propulsion method is in the range of tens of thousands of volts, frequently
as high as 50,000 volts. This then requires heavy transformers to produce
voltage this high. Alright then, can we find a way to reduce the required
voltage?

High-voltage power supplies don't need heavy transformers. But they do
need a source of power. I doubt that an ion thruster could lift its
own batteries for five minutes even if the power converter weighs
zero.



Yes! It turns out if you reduce the diameter of the wires doing the
ionization of the air then the required voltage is reduced. In fact,
according to the math if the wires are at the nanoscale then the required
voltage might be reduced to only tens of volts instead of tens of thousands
of volts. For the small-scale lifters, if you used now wires at the
nanoscale, it may be they could be powered by a couple of 9-volt batteries
connected in series.

Again, you won't get enough lift to support those two batteries, and
they would be dead in minutes anyhow.

The tiny tips would erode rapidly, too.

Don't top post on usenet.


--

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc

lunatic fringe electronics