There may be hope yet for ion wind drives

[Accu157]

http://www.guru3d.com/newsitem.php?id=6680

I cannot validate the claims, but this is definitely engineered, and goes beyond the amateur tinkering and claims of "antigenicity secret science" tinfoil hat thinking that has plagued development of this possible technology. In some sense, I think a working, elegant product of research into something like this used for r/c would make regular r/c motors look more impressive and mechanically complex. This is much better than the balsa and tin foil garbage that people have been making. "look! If flies!" ...ok, way to go, what did you learn, exactly?

Here's some real science:
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1983aiaa.meetR....M
http://www.aiaa.org/content.cfm?pageid=406&gTable=japaperimportPre97&gID=9997
http://www.springerlink.com/content/gcajcnqaptw92mpa/

[vintage1]

Hmm. I am not sure I like the idea of ultra high voltages near a chip..one spark, and bang gos the whole state of the chip.. reboot time.

[Brandano]

Heh, rather.. one spark and bang goes the chip! I imagine the entire thing will be shielded to ground.

[nmasters]

Interesting, for the last 90 years everybody has been trying and failing to scale it up now these guys scale it down and the thing works.

[Accu157]

The potential difference is only 1000 volts. That itty bitty chip moves air at 2.5m/s, imagine an array of those. The thinner the air, the faster the air gets moved... There must be some fundamental equation governing this thing... I know a few of them already.