Infinitely Variable Speed Ion Wind Cannon

"40 points of energy attribute, that's enough."

Chen Yi checked the thruster's attributes after connecting it to the power battery.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

Seven-colored light bloomed.

It completely enveloped the ion thruster and the power battery on the table.

The ion thruster's attributes were rapidly adjusting, and its shape and form were constantly changing.

Half a minute later, the light dissipated.

The originally bulky and large power battery had disappeared, replaced by a battery the size of a thermos.

The once crude and outrageous pull-tab-like thruster had also undergone a drastic transformation.

The surface of the cylinder was covered with all sorts of modules and capacitors.

One side had an intake channel like an aircraft engine, with specially made turbofan blades, the surface imprinted with some special dimples like a golf ball.

The other side had a nozzle that contracted inwards, looking no different from an ordinary turbofan engine.

Judging solely by its appearance, an uninformed person would think this was a turbofan combustion jet engine.

But only Chen Yi knew.

This was not a turbofan combustion jet engine.

This was a turbofan ion propulsion engine.

The combustion chamber inside the combustion jet engine had been replaced by an accelerated electric and magnetic field.

The original method of expansion and work through combustion had become ion propulsion via electric fields.

[Item: Turbofan Ion Propulsion Engine (Atmospheric Type)]

[Attributes: Energy x3.2, Strength x3.2, Mass x3.1, Speed x30.1, Efficiency x3.2, Control x3.2, Aesthetics x3.5...]

[Consciousness Wave: 7228203]

[Detected an attribute exceeding initial value, would you like to read the information? Yes/No!]

[Note: This is an innovative engine design that combines turbofan jet + ion propulsion, replacing combustion propulsion with ion electric propulsion. If chemical energy were to be depleted one day, it would be the best turbofan engine.]

"If chemical energy is depleted, it's the best engine."

"So, it's still not as good as a turbofan combustion jet engine right now?"

Chen Yi understood the hidden meaning in the comment's evaluation.

As for the 30-point speed attribute, not being comparable to a turbofan combustion engine, this didn't surprise Chen Yi.

Having gone through the manufacturing process of the brainwave virtual consciousness machine, he already knew.

For items of different types, even with the same attribute, their weight and performance could vary greatly, even to the point of being worlds apart.

Ion propulsion engines and chemical combustion propulsion engines.

Although both were called engines, their principles and types were vastly different.

"Let's test it and see the thrust magnitude and thrust-to-weight ratio."

Chen Yi didn't rush to read the information but tried to lift the ion thruster.

It was a bit heavy.

About 40 kilograms.

Without using a forklift, Chen Yi moved the thruster to a scale on the side.

After weighing it, he confirmed the thruster's mass.

39.86 kilograms.

"This weight is a bit much; the thrust-to-weight ratio might be a bit questionable."

Chen Yi moved the thruster to a separate testing area.

He fixed the thruster onto the test stand for measuring engine thrust and opened the roll-up doors at the front for intake and the rear for exhaust.

He flipped the switch.

The lights turned on, and the previously quiet intake turbofan began to rotate.

The turbofan's speed was not high; the RPM measuring instrument showed only 200 rpm, which was even slower than a typical household fan.

The turbofan rotated for two seconds.

Suddenly, with a hiss, the nozzle on the other side of the thruster lit up with a blue glow.

Simultaneously, a violent airflow was ejected.

This airflow tore through the air, producing a fine, whistling sonic boom.

However, due to the airflow, the impact of breaking the sound barrier was relatively small, less than one-thousandth of the impact from a physical aircraft breaking the sound barrier.

Chen Yi, wearing soundproof earplugs and having already moved aside, felt only a slight hum without any other discomfort.

"940.7 Newtons."

"This thrust, the thrust-to-weight ratio isn't even two to one."

Chen Yi couldn't help but scoff as he looked at the thrust value displayed on the test stand.

Even though he knew that ion propulsion engines generally had low thrust.

This was astonishingly low, though.

After all, this wasn't purely ion propulsion; it was a combination of turbofan and ion propulsion.

Compared to turbofan combustion jet engines, which could achieve thrust-to-weight ratios of nine to one, ten to one, or even over twenty to one like Chen Yi's sprint to space, Ion engines were, in a word, pathetic.

After testing for over three minutes, the battery was depleted, and the ion thruster stopped.

Chen Yi connected it to the charger, then chose to read the information.

Dense information flooded his mind.

This included technical details about the ion thruster's structure, internal electric field layout, magnetic field distribution, acceleration trajectory distribution, and magnetic field interference processing.

There were also basic parameters such as the ion thruster's ejection velocity and ejection mass.

"Maximum ejection velocity of 520 meters per second, a decent number. It's just that the specific ejection mass is a bit low."

After more than two weeks of virtual learning, Chen Yi quickly understood the information he had just read, as well as the key technical points.

Low specific ejection mass.

This was a common problem with ion thrusters.

If chemical combustion thrusters were like a tsunami flooding, then ion thrusters were like a child urinating.

True aerospace engines, like the main engines of the Saturn V, burned thousands of tons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen in just a few minutes.

An ion thruster of the same volume would consume only a few hundred grams of fuel in a full day of operation.

Although ion thrusters could easily impart higher ejection velocities to the propellant, their low mass flow rate meant they weren't very substantial.

Furthermore, before the ejection velocity approached the speed of light and relativistic effects kicked in, the conservation of kinetic energy and impulse formulas dictated that

kinetic energy was quadratically proportional to ejection velocity but linearly proportional to mass.

For the same power output, the faster the propellant was ejected, the lower the ejection mass and the smaller the thrust.

Ion thrusters reduced thrust to save propellant, achieving higher efficiency and specific impulse.

This method allowed for greater acceleration time and longer endurance in the vacuum of space, where propellant could not be replenished.

"It still needs improvement.

Improvement of intake control and ion ejection control.

During the atmospheric ascent phase, the thruster can replenish propellant from the surrounding atmosphere at any time.

This way, there's no need to save propellant by increasing ejection velocity and decreasing ejection mass, thus lowering thrust.

Instead, we should reduce ejection velocity and increase ejection mass to achieve greater thrust.

Once at high altitude or in space, we can then increase ejection velocity to reduce propellant consumption and gain more acceleration time and longer endurance."

Having determined the next improvement plan, Chen Yi didn't hesitate and began adjusting the ion thruster's attributes.

A seven-colored light emerged.

When the light faded, the original, pure bucket-like ion thruster had transformed into a small, black carbon-element hairdryer.

One end of the barrel had fan blades, and the other was the nozzle.

In the center of the barrel, a circle of modules and control capacitors of various sizes were welded on.

[Item: Infinitely Variable Speed Ion Wind Cannon]

[Attributes: Energy x3.2, Strength x3.2, Mass x3.1, Speed x3.1, Efficiency x3.2, Control x30.2, Aesthetics x3.5...]

[Consciousness Wave: 7222203]

[Detected an attribute exceeding initial value, do you wish to read information? Yes/No!]

[Note: This is a wind cannon integrating the latest ion control technology. Through precise control of ions, it can easily blow out negative ion breezes, drying your hair in one minute.

It can also increase the intensity of the electric and magnetic fields to blow out high-temperature plasma winds, with faster speeds and higher temperatures. This hairdryer instantly becomes a heat cannon, capable of melting gold and cutting iron.]

"This would make a great hairdryer for my girlfriend. I'll blow her hair with love, or roast her brain if I don't."

Looking at the description of this new wind cannon, Chen Yi couldn't help but gasp.