[tgflynn]

> I don't know if you can rectify RF energy like you can with voltage.

You can in essence, because charged particles have inertia, they don't instantly follow the EM field. That's how RF particle accelerators work. But there you're working with a beam of charged particles, not a neutral plasma.

It still sounds to me that they are essentially using the RF energy just to heat the plasma and in that case the parent's objections seem valid, though I don't know much about jet engine design.