Techknowledgey 2008
by Jeff Eckert

Flying Saucer: Patent Pending

The US Patent Office recently received an application for something that resembles a traditional flying saucer, but the applicant isn’t a Martian — the culprit is Assoc. Prof. Subrata Roy, of the University of Florida’s Dept. of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering (www.mae.ufl.edu). The design is properly known as a “wingless electromagnetic air vehicle,” or WEAV. The innovative part of the concept is that the WEAV will be powered by magnetohydrodynamics, which is basically the science of how electrically conductive fluids — which include plasmas and liquid metals — are affected by magnetic fields. In this case, “the conducting fluid will be created by electrodes that cover each of the vehicle’s surfaces and ionize the surrounding air into plasma ... the force created by passing an electrical current through this plasma pushes around the surrounding air, and that swirling air creates lift and momentum and provides stability against wind gusts.”

The saucer-like shape serves to increase the area of the air-vehicle interface and maximize lift. A major advantage to this concept is that the vehicle will have no moving parts and the ability to take off vertically,
hover, and fly not only in Earth-like atmospheres but also in places like Titan, Saturn’s most inviting moon.

Some pretty substantial hurdles exist, though, so don’t get prematurely excited. For one thing, it remains to be seen if anyone can create a power source capable of generating enough plasma to raise itself against Earth’s gravity. In addition, the plasma creates enough EMI that communicating with the vehicle is highly problematic.