On Sat, 24 Nov 2018 10:50:25 +0000, Dave Walsh wrote:

So a solution that has LiIon batteries AND 40,000 volts flying around:
what could possibly go wrong?
I'm guessing the currents involved are very low?
Would a human being survive the encounter?

Currents won't be low for a full-size aircraft even if the claimed
efficiency of the ion-drive, in terms of thrust/watt, is much higher than
a modern jet engine, i.e. 5-10 times better.

A good idea of the power needed to fly a commuter jet is shown by a joint
Rolls Royce/ British Aerospace project. This will convert a BA.146 to
partial electric power. This involves replacing two of its jet engines
with electric ducted fans, which will initially be powered from a 2MW gas
turbine generator installed in the rear fuselage, which shows that the
power requirements of a regional jet is a few megawatts. Now assume that
the electric ducted fan has a similar efficiency to the jet engine it
replaces. IOW replacing with an ion-jet rig drops the power requirement
by a factor of 10, but its still in the several hundred kilowatt
ballpark.

My point? Even if voltages are in the KV region, so are currents when
hundreds of kilowatts are involved.

What we *really* need is the traditional Science Fiction Thruster unit -
and the Rotax-sized fusion reactor that powers it.


--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org