Ionocraft

From: sanman (manofsan_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 09/12/04 

To: sci-space-tech@moderators.isc.org
Date:  12 Sep 2004 11:13:35 -0700

I was reading about these electric "lifters" which generate lift using
"ion wind", and came across this old article about the Ionocraft,
which was to use this as a means of propulsion:

http://www.markwilson.com/ioncraft/

It seems to me that this concept would have been non-viable due to
power and energy storage density limitations.

But I'd like to ask if high-temp superconductors could make it
feasible, just as they could for maglev trains. While room temp
superconductors may be a long way off, I would point out that at 10-35
km altitude, the temperature varies between -50 and -60 degC. That's
significantly below room temp, and if a warm-temp superconductor could
be found that operates in that temperature range, a high-altitude
ionocraft could take advantage of this.

Would a superconductive version of the electric lifter grid/mesh in
the ionocraft design be able to generate adequate lift while managing
to keep power consumption down to a reasonable rate? Or would the idea
still be unworkable?