Posted on 07/30/2002 8:22:27 AM PDT by Fitzcarraldo
Boeing, the world’s largest aircraft manufacturer, has admitted it is working on experimental anti-gravity projects that could overturn a century of conventional aerospace propulsion technology if the science underpinning them can be engineered into hardware.
As part of the effort, which is being run out of Boeing’s Phantom Works advanced research and development facility in Seattle, the company is trying to solicit the services of a Russian scientist who claims he has developed anti-gravity devices in Russia and Finland. The approach, however, has been thwarted by Russian officialdom.
The Boeing drive to develop a collaborative relationship with the scientist in question, Dr Evgeny Podkletnov, has its own internal project name: ‘GRASP’ — Gravity Research for Advanced Space Propulsion.
A GRASP briefing document obtained by JDW sets out what Boeing believes to be at stake. "If gravity modification is real," it says, "it will alter the entire aerospace business."
GRASP’s objective is to explore propellentless propulsion (the aerospace world’s more formal term for anti-gravity), determine the validity of Podkletnov’s work and "examine possible uses for such a technology". Applications, the company says, could include space launch systems, artificial gravity on spacecraft, aircraft propulsion and ‘fuelless’ electricity generation — so-called ‘free energy’.
Although he was vilified by traditionalists who claimed that gravity-shielding was impossible under the known laws of physics, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) attempted to replicate his work in the mid-1990s. Because NASA lacked Podkletnov’s unique formula for the work, the attempt failed. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama will shortly conduct a second set of experiments using apparatus built to Podkletnov’s specifications.
Boeing recently approached Podkletnov directly, but promptly fell foul of Russian technology transfer controls (Moscow wants to stem the exodus of Russian high technology to the West).
The GRASP briefing document reveals that BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin have also contacted Podkletnov "and have some activity in this area".
It is also possible, Boeing admits, that "classified activities in gravity modification may exist". The paper points out that Podkletnov is strongly anti-military and will only provide assistance if the research is carried out in the ‘white world’ of open development.
See, that's part of the problem with a historian's view of things. People only write down the stuff that pans out, so in retrospect it does look like that. But take my word for it, for every nutty idea that becomes a reality, ten thousand end up in the rubbish tip.
The reason that the best ideas seemed nutty at first is because people do not start out with a very good "physics sense". The conclusions we form on the basis of our intuition are most usually wrong.
Antigravity is a good case in point. Because there's an attractive force, it "stands to reason" that there will be a repulsive force to go along with it. But the math says otherwise, and the it knows so much more than we do.
I didn't necessarily say anti-grav would be "the" solution---but is symbolic of the breakthrough that the "next" transportation breakthrough will take. By the way, doesn't the "math" say that a hummingbird can't fly?
The next transportation breakthrough will come from computers and communications: drive by wire. You get in the car, punch in the location (or better yet, say the location) and the car takes you there.
Once that system is in place, flying cars will become possible. We've long been able to support a vehicle with counterrotating fans; the problem is that the average, untrained consumer can't be trusted to operate one safely. Eliminate the need for a pilot and the market breaks wide open.
By the way, doesn't the "math" say that a hummingbird can't fly?
Perhaps you're thinking of bumblebees. When people couldn't get the equations to work out, what it was really telling them is that they didn't properly understand how a bumblebee moved its wings. Once they got that right, everthing worked out. It turned out that "the math" was right all along.
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