BTW I also have an untried design for an autonomous lifter (designed to take off vertically and hover for a few mn while carrying it's own power supply, would be a world first if it works), if anyone is interested in experimenting it you're welcome.
Be warned though that it requires thousands of euros worth of batteries (about 5 last time I looked 3 years ago), the rest of the craft costing virtually nothing except time and craftsmanship (a lot of each :). No HV power supply design experience required, the HVPS consisting bruteforcely in a series string of about 1200 tiny lithium-polymer batteries :))) Michel ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michel Jullian" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <vortex-l@eskimo.com> Sent: Saturday, February 03, 2007 3:07 PM Subject: Re: [Vo]: Re: Fred's Van de Graaff Antics > Sure Harry it's ion wind. Naudin's comment, athough somewhat misleading, is > correct too. The collector (bottom negative armature) is indeed attracted > upwards to the "parachuting" positive ion cloud _generated by_ the corona > wire (the ion cloud, dragging ambient air along, is pulled downwards with an > equal and opposite force, hence the wind). This upwards pull constitutes most > of the lift, because most of the positive charge (whose total value is equal > and opposite to the collector's negative charge due to charge conservation) > is in the air, so the wire itself carries a comparatively small positive > charge, so it's contribution to the lift (upwards push from the positive ion > cloud below) is comparatively small. > > Same reasoning holds if you reverse polarity, in all cases you get thrust in > the direction from the collector to the wire (not necessarily upwards BTW). > > Michel > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Harry Veeder" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <vortex-l@eskimo.com> > Sent: Saturday, February 03, 2007 4:13 AM > Subject: Re: [Vo]: Re: Fred's Van de Graaff Antics > > >> Michel Jullian wrote: >> >>> In spite of, or rather thanks to the ion fan out feature, this design has >>> beaten as I had expected all other lifter designs in terms of thrust per >>> unit >>> area, by a comfortable margin (3 times that of a standard lifter e.g. >>> Naudin's, 1.5 times that of a flat grid De Seversky ionocraft), at the >>> expense >>> of a 40% lower thrust to power ratio. >>> >>> http://www.blazelabs.com/e-exp06.asp >>> >>> Michel >>> >> >> >> >> Can ion wind explain this?: >> >> http://jnaudin.free.fr/lifters/tubular/index.htm >> >> "Note from Jean- Louis Naudin : Congratulations to Greg Vizza and to Francis >> Daran, there experiment proves definitely >> that the main Lifter thrust is the result of an upward force of the aluminum >> armature towards the virtual armature generated >> by the wires." >> >> This is a device several guys on this list could build and test. >> >> Harry >> >
