Non-self-sustained microwave discharge and the concept of a microwave air jet engine

A new type of microwave discharge—near-surface non-self-sustained discharge (NSND)—has been realized and investigated. A physical model of this discharge is presented.

For the first time NSND application for microwave air jet engines has been proposed. Measurements under laboratory conditions modelling the microwave air jet engine operation shows the qualitative agreement between the model of NSND and actual processes near the target irradiated by a powerful microwave beam. Characteristic dependences of recoil momentum of target on the background pressure and microwave pulse duration obtained in experiments are presented. Measured cost of thrust produced by the NSND is no more than 3.0 kW N⁻¹, which is close to the predicted values.