3 ms·

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boB6qu5dcCw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boB6qu5dcCw

• superkuh 8y ago
  Thanks for providing that. It does prove my point though. That plane is not flying at all. It is falling with style. The initial forward momentum is from the launch rail, not from the electrostatic propulsion.
  • erbium 8y ago
    At 2:11 you can see it moving in a straight line.
    • superkuh 8y ago
      Not shown: all the momentum imparted by the launch itself.
      • erbium 8y ago
        Shown: you, not reading the paper. https://sci-hub.tw/https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0707-9 https://sci-hub.tw/https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-01...
      • thinkcontext 8y ago
        For the Nature paper they compared unpowered vs powered flight. Unpowered got about 10m, powered got to 60m, the length of their test facility.
      • tzs 8y ago
        In that clip it is not slowing down, showing that the ion drive is generating sufficient thrust to sustain flight. It's irrelevant that it used assistance to initially reach that speed.