Is it possible to fly a glider with a plasma propulsion system.

Sorry that video is blocked to the UK for copywrite reasons. Ion rocket engines have to be on for 100s if not 1000s of hours, they carry their own fuel. the engine I envisage is air breathing and air exhaust.

what I would like is for someone to tell me that a plasma could be made in air in a tube and then pushed out with a magnetic field. I know plasma exhausts are very fast, but I was thinking that the ions would collide with other air atoms and set them in motion at the same time slowing the ions down to maybe 200mph. So although Ion and plasma engines are low thrust devices, by opperating them in the air in a tube each ion would push upto around 100 to 150 atoms of air, that doesn't sound much but when you get a million or so ions, all doing this energy exchange, you end up with a lot of thrust at a lower energy level. hopefuly at 200mph or so.

Kevin

Hi Maciej Kucia. Ok so you don't get the ion pushing air atoms part. Imagine a pool table, the white ball is an ion and all the other balls are the air atoms, now the pool que is the magetic force that makes the ion move. so it drives the white ball (ion) into the other balls (air atoms), Does the white ball stop or does it move the other balls, if you've played pool you'll know that the balls move and the white might stop or deflect of into other air atoms. While the ion is in the magnetic field it will keep trying to move along its lines of force, and so the air is moved, but not as fast as the ions do.

I hope this helps.

Kevin.

Hi, Yes about 23 to 25 kilowatts to make somewhere between 150 to 200lbs thrust, and yes the air entering the magnetic field would get ionized and would push with the rest of the ions. Unlike the ion / plasma engines made to work in space, this ion engine would use just electricity (lots of it) to firstly ionize some of the air at the front of the engine, and then to accelerated the ions with a magnetic field, this will make the ions (which are the same density as the other air molecules that didn’t get ionized at the air intake) move through the rest of the air and push them out the back as well, and then finally neutralised the ions with electrons from emitters at the back of the engine.

Kevin