[fatuna]

This is what we used to call a "lifter". I did a project on them in high school. Very fun to do, since you use a very high voltage. Our physics teachers were very enthusiastic and helped us a lot, all the other teachers kept a very safe distance. Another fun aspect; because of their obscureness, doing any research on lifters led almost directly to ufo and anti-gravity websites. Based on what I saw on our lifter, generating enough lift to carry actual cargo would require a huge amount of power, or a huge leap in efficienty of their ion-generation. Interesting development, I'll keep an eye on them.

[throwawayben]

> doing any research on lifters led almost directly to ufo and anti-gravity websites

http://jnaudin.free.fr/

This was an absolute favourite site of mine when I was a teen, so happy to see it's still up! I also tried to build a lifter with my physics teacher (out of hours), though we never got it working.

[mikewarot]

Lifters have a power to weight ratio about equal to that of a helicopter or drone. You trade the ability to operate in wet conditions for quieter operation, and the ability to scale the platform arbitrarily (provided you have sufficient power)

[kadoban]

How high voltage we talking? Is it low enough amps that it's relatively safe, or is this as firmly in "nope" territory as I imagine?

Regardless, yeah I bet that was fun as hell, since you apparently survived :)

[ENGNR]

25 kilovolts+, and pretty high amps!

Most people made them from CRT computer monitors back in the day

[kadoban]

Nice, that's definitely in "nope" territory for me, but sounds like something I'd love to watch from a distance.

[JoeAltmaier]

Or about the same as the shock you get from touching a doorknob after scuffing your feet on the carpet.

[kadoban]

Except in that case it lasts for 0 seconds, which is why you don't die. Something that's trying to use it to fly, that seems unlikely to be how it works.

[klyrs]

In voltage, you're right. In amperage, you're dead.