A fundamentally new electro-jet rocket engine having a big thrust with a high specific impulse is described in this paper. The acceleration mechanism of magnetized plasma along the axis of a cylindrical chamber with a helical corrugated magnetic field is put in the basis of such engine. The plasma acceleration is achieved during its drift motion by applying a radial electric field. The analytical description of the plasma motion process gives a visual representation of how the diamagnetic forces provide the process of the continuous acceleration of plasma ions along the axis of the helical corrugated magnetic field. As the result of this process, the accelerated plasma stream flows through the expanding cross section of a magnetic nozzle and the thrust of the rocket engine is created. Estimated calculations showed the ability of the new electro-jet rocket engine to achieve the big trust (in the range 102 –104 Newton) with the high specific impulse (from the level 3·104 to 103 seconds, respectively) at a reasonable efficiency. This set of parameters is fundamentally unattainable for another jet engines operating on the basis of other physical mechanisms.

The initial-value problem for linearized equation describing small-scale flute modes in plasmas with nonuniform rotation is solved. It is shown that the differential rotation modifies qualitative characteristics of interchange bubbles such as their shape and the temporal dependence of amplitude. The radial wavelength of perturbations decreases with time, while their amplitude evolves according to a power law, instead of the usual exponential behavior. The radial contraction of the wavelength leads, on the one hand, to the decrease of the plasma displacement, but, on the other hand, to the increase of the perturbed electric field. As a result, the energy of perturbations increases even in the case when the amplitude of perturbed potential stays constant. Small-scale perturbations become stable if the ion gyroviscosity is taken into account.