Boeing tries to defy gravity

BBC News - Science and Technology ^ | Monday, 29 July, 2002, 03:23 GMT 04:23 UK | Editorial Staff

[vannrox]

Monday, 29 July, 2002, 03:23 GMT 04:23 UK

Boeing tries to defy gravity

An anti-gravity device would revolutionise air travel

Researchers at the world's largest aircraft maker, Boeing, are using the work of a controversial Russian scientist to try to create a device that will defy gravity.

The company is examining an experiment by Yevgeny Podkletnov, who claims to have developed a device which can shield objects from the Earth's pull.

Dr Podkletnov is viewed with suspicion by many conventional scientists. They have not been able to reproduce his results.

The project is being run by the top-secret Phantom Works in Seattle, the part of the company which handles Boeing's most sensitive programmes.

The head of the Phantom Works, George Muellner, told the security analysis journal Jane's Defence Weekly that the science appeared to be valid and plausible.

Dr Podkletnov claims to have countered the effects of gravity in an experiment at the Tampere University of Technology in Finland in 1992.

The scientist says he found that objects above a superconducting ceramic disc rotating over powerful electromagnets lost weight.

The reduction in gravity was small, about 2%, but the implications - for example, in terms of cutting the energy needed for a plane to fly - were immense.

Scientists who investigated Dr Podkletnov's work, however, said the experiment was fundamentally flawed and that negating gravity was impossible.

Research explored

But documents obtained by Jane's Defence Weekly and seen by the BBC show that Boeing is taking Dr Podkletnov's research seriously.

The hypothesis is being tested in a programme codenamed Project Grasp.

Boeing is the latest in a series of high-profile institutions trying to replicate Dr Podkletnov's experiment.

The military wing of the UK hi-tech group BAE Systems is working on an anti-gravity programme, dubbed Project Greenglow.

The US space agency, Nasa, is also attempting to reproduce Dr Podkletnov's findings, but a preliminary report indicates the effect does not exist.

[vannrox]

Other Links:


Nasa Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Program .
Quantum Cavorite .
Project Greenglow .
Boeing .
Jane's .
Q&A: Boeing and anti-gravity .
Gravity research gets off the ground .
Russia's 'gravity-beating' scientist .
The BBC's Andrew Gilligan "The idea is still highly experimental" .
Professor Robin Tucker and writer Nick Cook "Boeing wants to build its own impulse gravity generator" .

[anymouse]

More wasted tax dollars. :(

[ken5050]

Their sales forcasts for the proposed "Sonic Cruiser" also defy gravity....

[jae471]

Scientists who investigated Dr Podkletnov's work, however, said the experiment was fundamentally flawed and that negating gravity was impossible.

I didn't know Boeing was working on this. I've read about this before, and it is not a device that negates gravity. It is a device that sheilds gravity.

[pabianice]

Old news.

[SkunkPunk]

Everybody knows Dr. Podkletnov was brought to Area 51 in the early 70's to help in the reverse egineering of alien crafts. I mean duh! He has clearly stolen the idea for person gain which he will use to finance Hillary's run for the white house.

[yendu bwam]

Could someone explain what physics is supposed to be behind it?

[Allrightnow]

I believe it! No sooner did I read this article, than my underpants began to hover over my coworkers cubicle, proscribing crop circles in the paperwork on her desk!

[yendu bwam]

This is really research-lite, if you know what I mean!

[Gorzaloon]

Everybody knows Dr. Podkletnov was brought to Area 51 in the early 70's to help in the reverse egineering of alien crafts.

We need a posting moratorium on this UK Tabloid garbage.

Today, NASA came out and dismissed the breathless sensational Brit tabloids accounts of the impending asteroid strike as "Rubbish". That is fairly unusual language for them.

Something has happened to the British Press. I know that in Bath, there is a lot of lead in the water, but was unaware the problem had reached London.

[My2Cents]

I've seen reports of similar research involving extremely high electro-magnetic fields. Objects, even living creatures (frogs, insects, and whatnot), placed in the middle of these fields "float", apparently without ill-effect. Of course, the equipment used to cause these objects to float in space are very definitely earthbound. The question would be how to generate a field capable of causing a vehicle to float. It may end up like perpetual motion research.

[moxhets]

"More wasted tax dollars"
Umm.....Ticket dollars maybe, a little investment capital. No tax dollars though. Your thinking black budget Pentagon stuff. Boeing is a civilian company.

[LibWhacker]

Voodoo physics.

[El Sordo]

It's based on "Green theory" where he publishes vague results, makes ambiguous promises and then suddenly his bank account becomes heavier.

[Gorzaloon]

Could someone explain what physics is supposed to be behind it?

As soon as someone can explain what "Gravity" is, in the first place! I do not mean its actions, laws or symptoms, I mean the fundamental mechanism.

Till then these stories are pretty much "What you see is what you get".

There are only two redeeming features of these Brit Trash papers:

1: Wrapping fish and chips.

2: Page 3.

[Stentor]

Off topic, I think I saw Pons and Fleischman doing a barbecue cooking show on NPR.

[jettester]

Uh, sorry. Phantom Works is located in St. Louis, not Seattle.

[jbstrick]

Skeptical? Maybe. I would like to see, once and for all, the results of this experiment validated or not.

Remember all of those in our past who have said "That is impossible!" (The earth is flat, everything circles the earth, man can't fly... I could go on and on)

Here is another Physics brainteaser.

If light consists of particles (photons) AND they travel at the speed of light, wouldn't that mean that the photon's mass is infinite?

[MindBender26]

"physics"

Milk of Magnesia of the brain

[El Sordo]

Unless they are also a wave.