How UFO's fly

Secrets of flying saucers discovered!

One of the things that makes flying saucers so fascinating is that they clearly use some crazy alien technology to zip around. No human-built planes can maneuver like that! If only! Well, now it looks like someone has figured out the secret to flying saucers: ionized air.

Engineering professor Subrata Roy of the University of Florida figured it out, and he plans to make a prototype showing off his discovery. How's it work?

The surface of the saucer-shaped craft will be covered with electrodes that, when powered by a battery or other power source, will ionize the surrounding air to create plasma. When charged with an electric current, the polarized plasma will repel the non-polarized air, creating lift and thrust. Such an aircraft would have very stable flight characteristics, with the pilot controlling it by diverting the electrical charge to different parts of the surface.

His initial prototype will be six inches in diameter, but he thinks its scalable to larger sizes. Just think, in 10 years we could all be scooting around in our own UFOs. Let's make this happen. Via io9