Ion-Propelled Lifters (a.k.a. "Ioncraft") / Discussion

This is the discussion related to the wiki page Ion-Propelled Lifters (a.k.a. "Ioncraft").

carriontrooper 13 Feb 2010 09:55

Hmm, I can somehow see this as still a working prototype in 1934. Stable and marketable ones may appear as late as 1944, and some experimental military ones developed by then, but only used rarely/made it too late to turn the tide of war (kinda like the twin-jet Messerschmitt, maybe)… Still, it would be a somewhat better (though fuel-consumptive) analogy for a helicopter…

Mr_ Bondoc 13 Feb 2010 10:45

I can certainly use that analogy. The fact that helicopters were experimented on throughout the 1940s, although being invented in c. 1938, would certainly be an apt analogy for the ATL. Consider the idea that there were only 400 ioncraft worldwide in 1949. It would only be after 1951 was the full civilian utility of ioncraft fully understood.