Re: I want to know how a ionocrafts work?

Greetings:

The IONOCRAFT was invented by the famous aeronautical engineer Major 
Alexander P. de Seversky and he  patented the concept in 1964.
(A. P. De Seversky, US Patent 3,130,945, Ionocraft, granted April 28, 
1964). 
A popular article about the Ionocraft was written in the August 1964 issue 
of Popular Mechanics magazine. A copy of this article  along with 
photographs have been placed on the web at the following URL: 

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

The Ionocraft has become a popular concept in the anti-gravity literature.

At very high voltages air molecules can be ionized which means that they 
are striped of light weight, negatively  charged electrons, leaving heavy, 
positively charged nuclei. These nuclei can then be accelerated to high 
speed through a gird structure with a high voltage negative charge on it. 
In a vaucuum this ion beam can produce a few milli-pounds of thrust 
(a milli-pound is one, one thousanth of a pound).  If you drop a dime unto 
your hand from a heigth of 60 cm (2 feet), you will feel about a milli-
pound of thrust! Xenon Ion engines are now being manufactured by the Hughes 
Space Company and one  of them is being  used to propel NASA�s Deep Space 
One spacecraft . Information about the Xenon Ion Propulsion System (XIPS 
pronounced Zips) can be seen at the following NASA web site.

http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/ 

Currently 16 ion engines  are in space being used on Hughes communications 
satellites  to keep the microwave antennas pointed toward the earth and the 
solar panels toward the sun. 

http://www.hughespace.com

 The ion engines work well in the vacuum of 
space because the exhaust beam of ions can reach 100,000 km per hour 
(60,000 miles per hour) so that they use only one tenth of the amount of 
fuel that similar chemical thrusters use to provide the required thrust to 
keep the spacecraft oriented correctly for 15 years.

The Ionocraft uses a concept similar to an ion engine; however the air 
ion molecule ions collide with other air molecules, destroying the beam and 
greatly reducing their velocity to produce micro-pounds of thrust. This 
thrust is caused more by electrostatic forces than that of a spaceborne ion 
engine. While this form of propulsion is very interesting, the payload 
cannot even support the weight required to produce the high voltage 
electrical charges and currents required to propel the Ionocraft!  In the 
Popular Mechanics pictures you will see wires from the ground attached to 
the Ionocraft to provide the high voltage electricity.

Best regards, Your Mad Scientist
Adrian Popa