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As reported by The BBC... and The Guardian

The Guardian has a lot more detail.

Impulse drive is here. No all we need is a decommissioned ICBM, a drunk genius, and some time travel magic.

add high efficiency solar panels and you've got the perfect flying bug killer for your summer picnic needs

It is very cool. Though I expect it will be a little bit before it replaces jet engines because of how many electrodes are required. A 747 sized aircraft would have a massive set of electrodes to equal the thrust of the engines they currently have.

Maybe the plane could have kind of hollow box kite wings with the electrode arrays inside.

Thats very cool

As nano manufacturing tech matures we could see arrays of electrode as small as gates on a CPU chip, resulting possibly in a plane where the main fuselage has a series of cylinders or tunnels running thru it producing thrust.

I wonder how stealthy it could be? Could it have applications as an undetectable drone?

The problem I imagine is that it will never be efficient enough to carry substantial mass, such as passengers, or achieve great speed. This working model clearly has a vast surface area:mass ratio. Like magnetohydrodynamic drives that rely on the movement of charged particles, you need a vast surface area and/or huge power supplies. Which then increase the weight and drag for little gains in relative power, meaning it’s never efficient enough to move at any notable speed.

I can think of several possibilities.

First is propulsion for long endurance surveillance drones.

Second is using the engine system to propel large cargo zeppelins. They would carry less than container ships but would be much faster, so useful for high value or perishable cargoes.

Third is that large, slow planes may be acceptable for long distance travel, with a trade-off of speed for increased comfort. I wouldn't mind a two day flight to Japan if I could have a comfortable cot and room to move around and exercise. At the moment I can fly to Japan in 3/4 of a day, but economy seats are very cramped.

 Howard A Treesong wrote:
I wonder how stealthy it could be? Could it have applications as an undetectable drone?

Sure, it would be quiet. But at the distances which military drones, like the Predator drone, operate they are way too high in the atmosphere for any noise to reach the ground. Its all visual and radar detection at that level, so the engine's noise generation is of minimal impact. So it wouldn't be any stealthier because of this new engine.

Smaller drones which operate much closer to the ground would benefit from the noise reduction though.

 Grey Templar wrote:

 Howard A Treesong wrote:
I wonder how stealthy it could be? Could it have applications as an undetectable drone?

Sure, it would be quiet. But at the distances which military drones, like the Predator drone, operate they are way too high in the atmosphere for any noise to reach the ground. Its all visual and radar detection at that level, so the engine's noise generation is of minimal impact. So it wouldn't be any stealthier because of this new engine.

Smaller drones which operate much closer to the ground would benefit from the noise reduction though.

To be fair, one of the presumed advantages of these kind of engine is that it weighs less than a traditional engine, i.e. can be smaller. Drones and UAVs by and large are already smaller but making them even smaller still...

 LordofHats wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:

 Howard A Treesong wrote:
I wonder how stealthy it could be? Could it have applications as an undetectable drone?

Sure, it would be quiet. But at the distances which military drones, like the Predator drone, operate they are way too high in the atmosphere for any noise to reach the ground. Its all visual and radar detection at that level, so the engine's noise generation is of minimal impact. So it wouldn't be any stealthier because of this new engine.

Smaller drones which operate much closer to the ground would benefit from the noise reduction though.

To be fair, one of the presumed advantages of these kind of engine is that it weighs less than a traditional engine, i.e. can be smaller. Drones and UAVs by and large are already smaller but making them even smaller still...

True. Most of the bulk on current drones is the engine/props/battery.

 LordofHats wrote:
Impulse drive is here. No all we need is a decommissioned ICBM, a drunk genius, and some time travel magic.

And super robots. They helped

 LordofHats wrote:
Impulse drive is here. No all we need is a decommissioned ICBM, a drunk genius, and some time travel magic.

Then I can FINALLY end the debate with my nerd friends on whether or not Pickard and Lily sealed the deal.