Alternative air transportation and magneto-aerodynamics

Question

Firstly, I am not a big fan of UFOs, however, a flying saucer makes me think if is there another, comparatively agile way to travel through the air without jets, turbines or propellers (balloons are two slow and way too dependent on weather)?

Say, we have very powerful source of energy that let us create and sustain plasma cloud around our vehicle. Is it possible that, by manipulating magnetic and electrical fields from the inside apparatus, we use the plasma as propulsion medium that let vehicle to move? Similar principles from MHD already used in Mitsubishi's Yamato 1 boat.

My question: is there known theoretical work (i.e., calculations) that was done to evaluate potential of the solution, i.e.: energy required to sustain plasma, resulted propulsion, efficiency, etc.? Any links would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

There are the so-called ionocrafts based on the Biefeld-Brown effect, your suggestion sounds sort of similar. The thrust per unit area tends to be incredibly weak, but see here and here for some speculative proposals about actually using them for practical purposes, along with this NASA paper on the Biefeld-Brown effect.