Indoor ionic propulsion technology - high voltage power system design

We present in this paper a novel propulsion technology that can directly convert high voltage electrical energy to mechanical thrust without using any moving mechanical parts and thus is noiseless and vibration free. In our prior work reported in late 2007, we demonstrated several prototypes using this technology and showed that simple triangular and circular propulsive units -Ionic Flyers - could be lifted into air using off-the-shelf high voltage power system. However, the existing high voltage generators that can operate Ionic Flyers are usually large and heavy, which is not suitable for developing an autonomous ionic-propulsion flying system Therefore, we have since then developed a small-size and lightweight power generation system that is powered by an 11.1 V battery but capable of generating ~20 kV DC voltage continuously over time for a load in the MOmega range. The architecture and the performance analysis of this high voltage power system will be presented in this paper. In addition, the feasibility on lifting an Ionic Flyer with self-sufficient on-board power supply will be analyzed systematically based on the parametric models formulated by our group of the Ionic Flyer.