The Parallel Universe

I posted links in some thread or another, to a video of the flight of an experimental, no moving parts, ion drive plane. The source was MIT, and their source? Pages from Townsend Brown's 1927 notebook.

And now we have the Silent Venus, a next generation "last mile" drone expected to be production ready next year.
https://www.undefinedtechnologies.com/p ... -rendering

Since Thomas Townsend Brown discovered propulsion generated by asymmetrical electrodes in 1921 there had not been a significant break-thru that allow generation ion propulsion to levels that made it possible to develop VTOL crafts in atmospheric conditions. Our all-electric drone powered by ion propulsion, with minimum noise signature and zero carbon emissions, uses innovative physics principles to generate noise levels below 55 dB.

The ionic cat is out of the bag and his name is Townsend.

Fascinating.

I wonder why this hasn't shown up in my Google alerts... Yet?

--PS

I'll be delighted if they make their 2024 deadline, but i think the rendering is misleading.

It makes the drone appear capable of lifing large objects and transporting humans, which seems too much to ask for just yet.

Yeah.

A "lifter" - made of balsa wood, tin foil and wire - can barely 'lift' itself.

Seems to me Jean Louis Naudin made one that could life a mouse. It was a triangle about 3-4 feet on either side.

--PS

Very interesting, in a very familiar "extremely sketchy startup company" kind of way. A bunch of 3D renderings with a focus on style over substance, eyebrow-raising breakthrough technology claims which would certainly be big if true, and nothing much else. I feel like we've seen this one-act microdrama play out quite a few times over the last 20 or so years with a dozen or so companies.

Still, it's always possible that this time is different and there is an actual product here.

Regards, Nate