Boeing researches Anti-Gravity!

[What-ho Squiffy!]

Heard on the ABC news (here in Oz) that Boeing are now researching a device (invented by a Russian scientist some years ago) that shields objects from the force of gravity. Boeing say it is very early into the research programme, and an anti-gravity aircraft is many years away.

Anybody heard of this??

[MarkD]

Wow, that Sonic Cruiser didn't take long to finish, since they have time to be working on this! Oh, er... they haven't have they.

Sounds like a media stunt during Farnborough with Mr. Branson and Mr. Airbus' A340-600 launch.

just me being cynical I suppose! :D :D :D

[Zeus]

The BBC report on this is at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2157975.stm

and the New scientist has a write up at:

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992611

and originally there was an article about this in the New Scientist September 1996 :

http://archive.newscientist.com/secure/article/article.jsp?rp=1&id=mg15120480.800

Interesting to see Dr Podkletnov turn up at Boeing!

:)

[Iron City]

"Tom Swift and his Antigravity Superplane"


Well gosh, if the UK MoD experts at BAE and NASA (a public relations powerhouse with a little science appended) are looking at it seriously in their top secret code named programs with such cool names reported by the Beeb it must be good. Has magnets and superconducting ceramic solenoids cooled by liquid nitrogen, unfortunately doesn't have a supercomputer, laser beams, or an internet connection.

Sounds like cold fusion

Antigravity will make money only when it is licensed to Victoria's Secret

[lunkenheimer]

Is it April 1? I knew I wasn't paying enough attention to the calendar :)

[Jet Man]

There was an article in the ‘New Scientist’ 12 Jan this year that described experiments, carried out by an Evgeny Podkletnov, that reduce the effects of gravity.

The experiments centred around a superconducting disc cooled to below 40K and levitated with a magnetic field. The disc was then made to rotate at 5000 rpm using an oscillating electric field. It is claimed that objects placed above the rotating disc lost around 1 per cent of their weight. Increasing the rotational velocity seemed to reduce weight even further – up to 2 per cent in later experiments.

Podkletnov has been ridiculed for his claims but he says others have replicated his results.

As yet there is no theoretical explanation of the above results.

Apparently both Boeing and NASA are interested in this technology. NASA I think were trying to replicate this experiment earlier this year.

[Ranger One]

Here's one of the actual papers:

http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/physics/0108005

Download the .pdf to get the full story.

Cold fusion until proven otherwise, IMHO

R 1

[Billy M]

There's a book by Nick Cook, who works for Jane's Defence Weekly, called "The Hunt For Zero Point - One Man's Journey To Discover The Biggest Secret Since The Invention Of The Atom Bomb" which is all about anti gravity.

Basically he tries to find out if the US government actually cracked this years ago and have since covered it all up. It's quite interesting and pretty convincing, but maybe I'm just gullible!!! It's well worth a read anyway.

[747FOCAL]

It really works. Just ask harry Potter! :D

[Wino]

Presumably you could also lower the mass of an object to zero thereby radically improving the fuel burn of everything reducing our demand on foreign oil to zero.

Therefore OPEC will never let it happen

Cheers
Wino

[Send Clowns]

Jet Man if they can't get the process simpler than that or more effect then I don't think that Airbus need worry too much in the near future. Can you imagine the gyroscopic problems of flying with that under your aircraft? :eek: Not to mention weight, bulk etc. The interesting thing I heard was the (rather speculative) future applications of projecting the effect to destroy satellites :D

[blue up]

I've seen one of the 5 devices in action, the vortex which creates very high and very low localised temperatures. As with most great discoveries, it is very simple and you could make one yourself at home. Wish I'd have thought of it first!

If the antigrav system works as well as the 'vortex fridge', then it will be a winner.

Read Nick Cooks' book a few weeks back.

[rainbow]

And from the June 2002 edition of Scientific American page 15....

" Raymond Chiao...well known for his work in quantum optics at the University of California at Berkeley...argues that a superconductor could transform...light...into gravitational radiation, and vice versa...

"Even if Chiao's contraption works, it wouldn't allow the generation of antigravity fields...as Eugene Podkletnov...controversially claimed to have observed...

"Antigravity requires canceling out a powerful, static gravitoelectric field, yet superconductors have no effect on such fields."

For your interest (and much abridged!):)

[car_owner]

Airbus is working on a device code named "ScottyBeamMeUp".

[What-ho Squiffy!]

I never realised that we were so skeptical as a group!

Does it matter if something is not explained when it has been shown to work?

Explain the science behind magnetism...?

[moggie]

Love the "Victoria's Secret" idea.

Mind you, they do a fine job with conventional engineering, see the link below:

www.victoriassecret.com/vsc/index.html


Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[laurie]

Quote from New Scientist:

"Podkletnov met New Scientist in late 2001 to outline the experiment, in which a large yttrium-barium-copper-oxide (YBCo) superconducting disc was suspended in nitrogen vapour and cooled to around —233 °C. The disk was levitated in a magnetic field and finally spun at speeds of up to 5000 revolutions per minute by means of an alternating electric current.

He claimed that objects placed above the disc lost around one per cent of their weight. But so far no one has managed to successfully repeat his experiment. "

By jingo - I feel out of sorts with Jet lag after long flights, but I dont really fancy my dizzy carcus being hung under one of the engines after the flight to thaw out...

Or maybe they were just trying to give their share price a nudge post enron, worldcom, xerox, aoltimewarner and so on...
:)

Laurie

[Iron City]

Actually the antigravity effect of rotating superconducting magnets was first recognized by Richard Pearse of New Zealand in May 1972. In an ingenious helicopter craft of his own design he slipped the surley bonds of earth from his farm workshop and flew several aerobatic routines finally landing in the road outside his farm gate. I know this because I read about it on an internet site and there were interviews there with people in 1997 that had seen it who described it in their own words.

Boeing is suppressing this, just another example of the Americans taking over aviation and keeping rightful recognition from a brilliant and underappreciated Kiwi. Looks like they are co-opting the Russians too. Shameless Yanks!!!

[PickyPerkins]

The following is from:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/750150.asp?0bl=-0
======= Start of quote =======
Boeing spokesman Erik Simonsen acknowledged that the GRASP report actually does exist, but said Cook’s account was based on a “misinterpretation of information.” ..........

....... Simonsen told MSNBC.com that there were no plans to fund research into the effect. He also said he was unaware of any Boeing efforts to approach Podkletnov directly, as reported in Jane’s Defence Weekly. ................
===== End of quote ==========

[patience]

hold on, here's some stripey paint to colour the flying pig (obviously the one with anti-gravity booties on its feet):D

King Patience

[cwatters]

> Actually the antigravity effect of rotating superconducting
> magnets was first recognized by Richard Pearse of New
> Zealand in May 1972

I guess this wouldn't be the Richard Pearse who died in 1953 would it?

http://www.auckland-airport.co.nz/pearse.html

Colin

[Young Paul]

You might not be able to explain why magnetism works, but you can at least be sure that it doesn't violate any fundamendal physical laws - such as conservation of mass-energy, or the laws of thermodynamics. You have to put in energy to overcome gravity, whether you can explain the effect or not. In broad terms, this needs to be given a pinch of salt of comparable size to that given to make a perpetual motion machine work.

Yes, I know that mass-energy and thermodynamics probably aren't "absolute", but they don't have big enough holes in to hide a competitive anti-gravity device.

[Slasher]

Actualy a couple of US bike-shop owners worked on and invented a successful anti-gravity device way back 99 years ago.

They called it an "aeroplane". :p

[Young Paul]

Au contraire. The aeroplane relies on the presence of gravity. It's the down arrow that balances lift - imagine if it wasn't there.

[LeadSled]

Folks,

Don't be too certain the immutable laws of science are really immutable. The recent research that suggests that the speed of light is not constant has some "interesting" possibilities.

Tootle pip !!