What we saw was by far the oddest aircraft since the Wright Brothers' motorized kite. It had no prop. In fact, it had no moving parts at all looking somewhat like an old-fashioned bedspring, the rectangular rig is the nearest thing to a magic carpet. It needs no runway, takes off vertically and is expected to climb as high as 60 miles. It can crawl through the air like a snail, or go faster than a jet.
Nobody yet knows the speed limit.
After a while, I closed my mouth. But David Yorysh, one of the project engineers, noticed my puzzlement. The magic carpet, called the Ionocraft, flies on pure electricity. High negative voltage is shot from the spikes toward the positively charged wire grid, just like negative and positive poles on an ordinary battery. As the negative charge leaves the spike arms, it peppers the surrounding air like buckshot, putting a negative charge on some of the air particles.