Electroaerodynamic Thruster Performance as a Function of Altitude and Flight Speed

Electroaerodynamic thrust has been proposed as a means for aircraft propulsion, potentially enabling near-silent and solid-state flight. Studies to date have experimentally quantified electroaerodynamic thrust density and thrust-to-power performance, determining that electroaerodynamic propulsion may be viable for use on fixed-wing aircraft. These studies, however, have only assessed electroaerodynamic propulsion devices at ground-level atmospheric pressure and in a static laboratory frame with zero flight velocity. This analysis is the first to analytically quantify the performance of a simplified one-dimensional electroaerodynamic propulsion system as a function of altitude and flight velocity. It is found that the thrust to power of a geometrically fixed thruster will decrease with altitude due to the decrease in pressure. Between 0 and 25 km, this decrease is predicted to be ∼80%. This loss in thrust-to-power performance, however, can be offset by geometrically scaling the size of the thruster with al...