In the first part of this overview, the behavior of a typical plasma spray jet will be discussed, including the effects of are behavior on the jet, transition to turbulence, gas entrainment, jet instabilities, demixing effects and the associated problems of measuring temperature and velocity fields using spectroscopy and enthalpy probes. The second part will be devoted to modeling attempts of the plasma jet, and modeling results will be presented of particle behavior in a plasma jet, including particle trajectories, particle velocities, and their heating histories.