Martian
Senior Member
- Messages
- 1,137
I deleted my second reply, because I realized that magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) must be involved, and I was thinking only in terms of materials science and the pressure involved. It's true that almost no orindary material could handle that much stress, but things change when you start working with plasma (maybe, anyway). Are there any MHD experts on this site? I'd love to hear an expert opinion.
Lifters are silent, & it's commonly thought that it's due to ion wind. The problem is that they're inefficient & produce low thrust. If one could boost the thrust while keeping it silent, that would certainly work. But I'm still uncertain about the Mach 9 thing. Once you surpass the speed of sound, there's sure to be a shock wave...?
Lifters are silent, & it's commonly thought that it's due to ion wind. The problem is that they're inefficient & produce low thrust. If one could boost the thrust while keeping it silent, that would certainly work. But I'm still uncertain about the Mach 9 thing. Once you surpass the speed of sound, there's sure to be a shock wave...?