Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I had an idea a while ago, it was to ionize air somehow and then to repel it with the help of an electric field, this was supposed to push the ions down and the whole machine the other way. I've changed my idea a bit since then (not too considerably). And recently I read about the xenon thruster NASA is making, and I just want to know if it sounds possible to do something similar to that but with air instead of xenon. No need to reply urgently, thank you.

Briefly - not easily. Xenon is a noble gas, which isn't very much like air. I doubt you really have the chemistry yet to understand the difference, and mine is a bit rusty, so a real chemist may wish to respond, but ionization means literally "gain or lose electrons to change charge", and atomic structure is deeply important to both how easy it is to do, and how much of a charge you generate (which would be the source of motive force).