Through a book I found in my local Public Library I discovered the work of Charles Townsend Brown i.e. Electro-kinetic Apparatus and the 'Byfield-Brown Effect'. The BBE is defined as - 'The tendancy of a highly charged capacitor to exibit THRUST in the direction of the Positive Electrode'. This could not be put much simpler!
I kept this knowledge in my head for several years all the time thinking of a way to produce and utilize a device of my own that would, eventualy be worth huge sums of money. After all C.T.B would be an old man by now could soon be on his 'last legs' leaving his patent up for grabs!
Now for anyone who likes conspiracy theories try this- Charles demostrated his 'flying discs' to U.S. top brass back in the fifties and they imposed an immediate security clamp down, straight after, so imagine all those years charles has had, under U.S. military patronage, to perfect his apparatus. Enough, I belive, to account for the many sightings at groom lake (area 51) which still occur to this day.
If someone could build their own working apparatus that differed just enough to allow a new patent to be issued, then the military could not possibly go public and sue -remember its still classified- so making that some one a potential billionaire!
There is also the large-scale effect it would have on the aviation industry, for instance, conventional 'winged' aircraft would suddenly be rendered obselete. This would mean companies without the new technology would be forced into bankcrupcy and this, of course, would create large scale job losses. Imagine, if you will, 'Independance Day' size craft capable of carrying many thousands of tons of freight and many tens of thousands of passengers globaly and at hypersonic speeds! This is just one possibility that the BBE opens up!

For more Information check out this book:-
The Philladephia Experiment.

Update 18/3/2000: The US are using an offshoot of Browns work on the hypersonic and ultra secret Aurora Project. A plasma torch/lance, projecting from the tip of the nose, the 'Airspike', is charged with very high voltage DC. This ionises the air and creates a plasma which behaves like a sort of cushion that deflects the shock wave away from the skin. Without it the aircrafts skin would heat to several thousand degrees and would simply disintergrate. There may also be a mechanism, along the length of the fusalage, to produce a moving magnetic field that transports the plasma to the rear of the aircraft, effectivly dragging it forward, allowing even higher speeds to be achieved. In fact it has achieved figures of Mach 10+!
Update 15/4/2000: The latest on the 'Aurora/Airspike'...Hypersonic aircraft that can travel at up to Mach 25 are now being developed in America! The skin temperature at this speed is over 8000 degrees, 2000 degrees hotter than the surface of the sun! The airspike allows the aircraft to sit inside a plasma wake where it is effectively sheilded from the heat, thus allowing this amazing speed to be achieved.