In reply to James Bowery's message of Tue, 9 Apr 2013 11:57:59 -0500: Hi, [snip] >> But fundamentally, I don't expect it will work to create high voltage >> much at all because the rocket exhaust is going to be much more >> conductive than air. It will easily arc. >> > >You're not taking into account distance. > Nevertheless, he may have a point. A water mist may be more conductive than e.g. a dry powder. Note that in real thunderstorms, lightning usually strikes through the rain. The device may short out through the mist itself, and the speed of the droplets is nothing compared to the speed of free electrons under influence of such a high voltage field. However it's the sort of device that you could probably build a small model of without too much difficulty, to try out the concept.
BTW there was an article on rocket powered electric generators like this in Popular Science about 40-50 years ago. Maybe they have searchable archives? Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html
