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...The biggest limitation, though, is the lack of lightweight batteries. A huge amount of electricity is required to generate and sustain the plasma. “An array of thrusters would require a small electrical power plant, which would be impossible to mount on an aircraft with today’s technology,” says Dan Lev from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. The power supply is also a barrier to making the individual thrusters bigger. Doing so would reduce the number needed to propel a plane, but each would require more power.Göksel is hoping for a breakthrough in compact fusion reactors to power his system....
That is a rather wishful hope.
Nah, I've read that controlled fusion reactions are just 10 or so years away. I'm sure the compact fusion reactors will be along shortly after that....(yes, that was sarcastic...) ^-^
Widespread fusion power is 20 years in the future...and always will be. (An old applied physics joke.)
My faculty advisor (Dr. Dale Klein, NRC chair in the Bush II admin) at UT Austin back in 1978 told me that joke.
Well, so far at least it's proved true...
