KirkSkywalker wrote:Hover-technology is in a lot of SW vehicles; Clieg Lars's hover-chair, Yoda's platform, Luke's speeder, the Scout-bikes on Endor which couldn't go higher than 10 feet off the ground, the Troop-transport vessels shown at the end of AotC, etc.
I've heard even Lucas uses one.
To have an ion-drive, you need ions shooting out the bottom at super-high speeds and temperatures: that's how ion-drive works, i.e. super-accelerated (and super-heated)ions shoot out near lightspeed, moving so fast that even though they're fairly negligible in mass, they push the ship forward at thousands of kph.
However near the ground, that would do a lot of damage and consume a lot of fuel just to keep an object hovering; in contrast, repulsor-maglev tech is more like a wheel, i.e. it doesn't require energy simply to keep something hovering a certain distance above the ground, but at the same time it allows horizontal movement (which is why the wheel was the greatest invention to date).
As for the notion of Yoda levitating the platform: it seems that Force-users can't completely levitate themselves, otherwise we'd see Obi-wan flying like Superman. As it is, they can't even seem to fall slowly enough to save themselves, if the drop is high enough; 50 feet or so seems the most they can safely fall without going ka-splat.
Mm... Vader glided in TESB. Luke made a jump impressive enough so you'd hear the thump two seconds later.
Obi-Wan survived the great splash in ROTS, and Yoda equally did survive his fall in the Senate, which was well greater than 50 feet.
Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan did a couple of such controlled falls in TPM, although they weren't considerably high (that's where your 50 feet is mostly correct).
The mad jumps are in AOTC. Anakin pulls some absolutely crazy stunts, but then he's the Chosen One, so it's likely biased.
Globally, they can slow their fall, but they don't seem to counter it to the point of levitating and even rising.
That said, what we saw came from high profile Sith/Jedi. Your average one may be not so talented in self-telekinesis.
The closest thing to a rise Jedi do is the Force jump, but they still need to jump like anyone would. We see that a lot in TPM.
Eventually, the best rise you see is Obi-Wan pulling himself out of the pit, with the strength of his arms, you seem him go up like if he kept the speed of his initial impulse. It still took him some great efforts, but at the same time he probably was exhausted. It seems that they negate gravity to some point, and probably for a limited amount of time.
