We propose a prototype design of a propulsion thruster that utilizes air plasma induced by microwave ionization. Such a jet engine simply uses only air and electricity to produce high temperature and pressurized plasma for jet propulsion. We used a home-made device to measure the lifting force and jet pressure at various settings of microwave power and the air flow rate. We demonstrated that, given the same power consumption, its propulsion pressure is comparable to that of conventional airplane jet engines using fossil fuels. Therefore, such a carbon-emission free thruster could potentially be used as a jet thruster in the atmosphere.

中文翻译：

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大气中微波空气等离子体的射流推进

我们提出了一种推进推进器的原型设计，该推进器利用了微波电离引起的空气等离子体。这样的喷气发动机仅使用空气和电力来产生高温和加压的等离子体以用于喷气推进。我们使用自制的设备在微波功率和空气流速的各种设置下测量提升力和喷射压力。我们证明，在相同功率消耗的情况下，其推进压力与使用化石燃料的传统飞机喷气发动机相当。因此，这种无碳排放的推进器可以潜在地用作大气中的喷气推进器。