When the illustration below was published in Paris in December 1999 it showed a vehicle concept that corresponded to correct hypersonic design criteria, and a flow field significantly modified by MHD interaction. A paper presented in the IAF Congress held in Turin, Italy provided details of an axisymmetric MHD nose generator. Its intent is to drive the device that created the plasma ahead of the nose. Researchers from Novosibirisk have stated such tests have been conducted in their hypersonic, high temperature wind tunnels and presented very similar pictures. An AIAA paper by Shang of the Air Force Rresearch Labs has like data.

One of the difficulties with the MHD propulsion system analysis is it that the aircraft is in a free stream flow field without any ionization. As the Szames illustration shows, and Russian researchers have stated, the propulsion system and aircraft are in a modified Mach number and gas flow field. In fact the flow around the aircraft and entering the engine is plasma affected flow. None of the aircraft or propulsion analyses have considered this flow field in their analyses. And the effect is not the same a thermal modification of the gas properties. Since the atmosphere ahead of the aircraft has the lowest density, the MHD interaction with the flow field is the greatest and covers the greatest extent. From the IAF paper in Turin, tow figures are available that describe the nose MHD device that reportedly powers a fuel reforming process of unknown description. The first figure is an illustration of the general arrangement of the fields, and the second is a schematic of the circuit.

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