.."The saucer is filled with helium to offset the weight of batteries and an electric motor which ionises the air around the rim of the craft into plasma, which is then circulated around the craft to generate lift."

ed.z. FWIW, the patent seems real, the guy's name checks out at the University of Florida. Ya'all smart guys figure out if it works or not past the helium balloon stage ;) And just for musing purposes, say such a thing was flying and had that rotating plasma field and you grabbed a quick snapshot of it with your cellphone cam..would it show up with clear edges, etc or be fuzzy or what? I am just wondering exactly what a plasma field looks like under normal non professional photography. I doubt say a welding operation would be very clear.