T.T.Brown noted during his experiments that the thrust exhibited by a condenser would diminish with time. Condensers which had an air dielectric could thrust continually, and it was eventually deduced that this was because the moving dielectric prevented the condenser from ever reaching full charge. Sadly, air is fairly puny as a dielectric for a craft, but a craft whos thrust dies after a matter of seconds is also. Thus, the segmented system is now in the ANGEL plans, in order to ensure a steady powerful thrust from polysulphide without losing energy.
A small timing controller located in the main craft body will control the timing of the segment "firing". At any given time, one third of the entire wing will be active, with a half second overlap between one segment-set shutdown and the subsequent power-up of the next one. The timing will need to be tweaked based upon empirical observations to give ANGEL a smooth ride. Below is a close-up of an individual segment.
In reality, for this system to work, all that is required is a timing system and a separation of each of the electrode elements. The lead electrode can be continuous as long as the wing electrodes have no contact.
The power supply is as described on the wing overview page. The segmentation system described here is, like the SAINT system, theoretical and under constant review. If anyone would like to suggest any improvements, please send me an email.
