This illustration by Danielle Zawoy for the University of Florida depicts what a wingless electromagnetic air vehicle might look like as it flies in the atmosphere above Mars.

Subrata Roy, an aerospace engineer from the University of Florida, recently submitted a patent application for an aircraft that just happens to come in the shape of a flying saucer. Dubbed a "winged electromagnetic air vehicle," or WEAV, the battery-powered prototype is designed at less than 6 in. across. Even so, Roy insists that the mini sci-fi mobile could be built full-scale for missions like atmospheric surveillance—and that's got NASA and the Air Force interested.

Powered by magnetohydrodynamics (a bulky title for the way energy generated as a current passes through a conducting fluid), WEAV would be able to lift off vertically and hover—"a saucer and a helicopter in one embodiment," as Roy puts it. We've seen prototypes of choppers with vertical landing capabilities and even length-morphing rotors, but Roy is talking about virtually part-less flight: Plasma-forming electrodes would serve as a conducting fluid, causing the surrounding air to be pushed around the craft, propelling it through the sky.

That sounds like something truly meant for space, and while physics are stacked against a saucer-like vehicle for the atmosphere in the near term, Roy isn't the only innovator with something of an upside-down eye on the sky. With reports on breakthroughs in levitation on a very small scale and the possibility of flying "magic" carpets both surfacing within the last year, maybe sci-fi and Hollywood aren't that loosely related after all. Then again, real success in any of these fields of flight would be revolutionary. As it is, a small flying saucer might be useful as another in the long line of mini-UAVs. —Allie Townsend

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io