[Stephen Wordsworth]

Presumably it would be a flying wing with plasma thrusters all along the back edge(no need for flaps or rudders), And focus fusion for power.

A quick look at the numbers in the abstract in the PDF look promising.
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/825/1/012005/pdf

Depending on the capacitor voltage (200-600 V) the energy input at one atmosphere varies
from 52-320 J/pulse corresponding to impulse bits from 1.2-8.0 mNs. Such a new pulsed plasma
propulsion system driven with one thousand pulses per second would already have thrust-to-area
ratios (50-150 kN/m²) of modern jet engines. An array of thrusters could enable future aircrafts and
airships to start from ground and reach altitudes up to 50km and beyond.

SKIP

In the air regime with initial pressures from 0.1-10 Torr the plasma jet has a
lifetime of 50-100 µs, can reach velocities from 5-20 km/s and high densities from 1017-1018 cm-3 [8]. In the
plasma focus the pinching discharge can be compressed to pressures of about 100-150 bar [8].

SNIP

The velocity for LEO is 3.2 kilometers a second so as long as the thrust to drag ratio remains good an exhaust velocity of 20km/s should get you into orbit, just need to take some reaction mass for the apogee thrust but once your orbit is circulerised you can use the low thrust but very high velocity (4.5%light speed) of p+b11 focus fusion to get you anywhere in the solars system. Then you can harvest He3 from Uranus to fuel fusion drive with an even higher 8.9%c exhaust velocity and go interstellar.

50km high cruising is the height of many launch loop ideas, focus fusion powered space planes makes the infrastructure heavey ideas of Lofstrom Loops or space elevators obsolete.

[Stephen Wordsworth]

This relies on a special laser light source so in a FF device it may be overwhelmed by the light from the plasma.

[Stephen Wordsworth]

When the 3rd world has enough cheap electricity for VR porn birthrates will drop. While megawatt class fusion powered quadcopters and VTOLs will make cheap flying busses extending the commuting distance for cities opening up new suburbs possibly creating a new baby boom in the first world. Eventually just as bacteria get resistent to antibiotics humans should evolve resistance to the antenatal culture of modernity. Fusion powered hypersonic planes and spacecraft will open up the solar system to colonization, and allow generation ships to spread life across the galaxy.

[Stephen Wordsworth]

As the lifetime of the pressurised cabin will be the main cost. Low flying slower aircraft will become a cheap method of travel. Megawatt quadcopters will be sky busses flying between helipads anywhere as cheap as any commuter train or bus.

[Stephen Wordsworth]

As it needs to be big enough to fit a fusion reactor in it instead of skycar think of the megawatt quadcopter as a flying bus. With low fuel and low infrastructure cost, low congestion and hig speed, these flying busses will become the main computing method for cities opening up ne more distant and previously inaccessible suburbs.

[Stephen Wordsworth]

As the fusion reactors can be turned off as soon as you land and only turned on again during take off you can save on radiation shielding and only put the radiation shadow shielding on the side facing the passengers you can also moke use of distance reducing the thickness of shielding required, by putting the all the reactors together in two pods underneath the two wings as far away from the passenger compartment as the wings structure can take it. 8 focus units per pod for redundancy if you want a unit in the body of the plane for emergency power in the tail behind a shadow shield but the two pods should be enough. Where the central fuel tank usually is is now more cargo space. The wing fuel tanks now recirculated coolant. This might not make flight as cheap as you might think see

But the airframe could be made heavier and more rugged for more pressurization cycles. Unlimited range with no refueling stops on smaller planes.

And then there is this
Plasma jet engines that could take you from the ground to space
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23431264-500-plasma-jet-engines-that-could-take-you-from-the-ground-to-space/
Susing similar electrodes to focus fussion
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/825/1/012005/pdf
A hypersonic ionocraft that can take you into orbit on electricity using the upper atmosphere as reaction mass, just needs fusion power to work.

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