text: A magnetohydrodynamic accelerator is an MHD converter that imparts motion to an electrically conductive fluid initially at rest, using cross electric current and magnetic field both applied within the fluid. MHD propulsion has been mostly tested with models of ships and submarines in seawater. Studies are also ongoing since the early 1960s about aerospace applications of MHD to aircraft propulsion and flow control to enable hypersonic flight: action on the boundary layer to prevent laminar flow from becoming turbulent, shock wave mitigation or cancellation for thermal control and reduction of the wave drag and form drag, inlet flow control and airflow velocity reduction with an MHD generator section ahead of a scramjet or turbojet to extend their regimes at higher Mach numbers, combined to an MHD accelerator in the exhaust nozzle fed by the MHD generator through a bypass system. Research on various designs are also conducted on electromagnetic plasma propulsion for space exploration.
  In an MHD accelerator, the Lorentz force accelerates all charge carriers in the same direction whatever their sign, as well as neutral atoms and molecules of the fluid through collisions. The fluid is ejected toward the rear and as a reaction, the vehicle accelerates forward.