Keith's Thesis ~ Flying Saucer Physics

Electrogravitic Systems

robert@wwa.com (Robert Stirniman )

Subject: AntiGrav Report - USAF 1956

To: freenrg-list@eskimo.com

Date: Wed, 22 Nov 1995 15:56:03 -0600 (CST)

The following article was prepared for the USAF in 1956, and

discusses the state of the electrogravitics industry at that

time. The article was found by an independent researcher on

a library shelf at Wright Patterson, and was declassified

in 1990.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

13-1-00034-5879

ELECTROGRAVITIC SYSTEMS

An examination of elecrostatic motion,

dynamic counterbary and barycentric control.

565

Bar Code: 3 1401 00034 5879

Due dates omitted.

Shield with Logo:

AF WRIGHT AERONAUTICAL LABORATORIES

TECHNICAL LIBRARY

Wright-Patterson

Air Force Base, Ohio 45433

Inner Cover:

ELECTROGRAVITICS SYSTEMS

An examination of electrostatic motion,

dynamic counterbary and barycentric control.

Prepared by

Gravity Research Group

Aviation Studies (International) Limited, London

29-31 Cheval Place. Knightsbridge

LONDON S.W. 7 England

Report GRG 013/56 February 1956

TL 565 A9

CONTENTS

Page

Introductory Notes...............1

Discussion.......................3

Conclusions.....................18

APPENDIX

I - Aviation Report extracts....21

I - Electrostatic Patents.......33

* * *

PROPERTY OF USAF

-1-

ELECTROGRAVITICS SYSTEMS

An examination of electrostatic motion, dynamic

counterbary and barycentric control

It has been accepted as axiomatic that the way to offset the

effects of gravity is to use a lifting surface and considerable

molecular energy to produce a continously applied force that,

for a limited period of time, can remain greater than the effects

of gravitational attraction. The original invention of the glider,

and evolution of the briefly self-sustaining glider, at the turn of

the century led to progressive advances in power and knowledge.

This has been directed to refining the classic Wright Brothers'

approach. Aircraft design is still fundamentally as the Wrights

adumbrated it, with wings, body, tails, moving or flapping

controls, landing gear and so forth. The Wright biplane was a

powered glider, and all subsequent aircraft, including the

supersonic jets of the nineteen-fifties are also powered gliders.

Only one fundamentally different flying principle has so far been

adopted with varying degrees of success. It is the rotating wing

aircraft that has led to the jet lifters and vertical pushers,

coleopters, ducted fans and lift induction turbine propulsion

systems.

But during these decades there was always the possibility

of making efforts to discover the nature of gravity from cosmic

or quantum theory, investigation and observation, with a view

to discerning the physical properties of aviation's enemy.

-2-

It has seemed to Aviation Studies that for some time

insufficient attention has been directed to this kind of research.

If it were successful such developments would change the

concept of sustentation, and confer upon a vehicle qualities

that would now be regarded as the ultimate in aviation.

This report summarizes in simple form the work that has

been done and is being done in the new field of electrogravitics.

It also outlines the various possible lines of research into the

nature and constituent matter of gravity, and how it has changed

from Newton to Einstein to the modern Hlavaty concept of

gravity as an electromagnetic force that may be controlled like

a light wave.

The report also contains an outline of opinions on the

feasibility of different electrogravitics systems and there is

reference to some of the barycentric control and electrostatic

rigs in operation.

Also included is a list of references to electrogravitics in

successive Aviation Reports since a drive was started by

Aviation Studies (International) Limited to suggest to aviation

business eighteen months ago that the rewards of success are

too far-reaching to be overlooked, especially in view of the

hopeful judgement of the most authoritative voice in micro-

physics. Also listed are some relevant patents on electrostatics

and electrostatic generators in the United States, United Kingdom

and France.

Gravity Research Group

---------------------

25 February 1956

-3-

DISCUSSION

Electrogravitics might be described as a synthesis of

electrostatic energy used for propulsion - either vertical propulsion

or horizontal or both - and gravitics, or dynamic counterbary, in

which energy is also used to set up a local gravitational force

independent of the earth's.

Electrostatic energy for propulsion has been predicted as a

possible means of propulsion in space when the thrust from a neutron

motor or ion motor would be sufficient in a dragless environment

to produce astronomical velocities. But the ion motor is not

strictly a part of the science of elctrogravitics, since barycentric

control in an electrogravitics systems is envisaged for a vehicle

operating within the earth's environment and it is not seen

initially for space application. Probably large scale space opera-

tions would have to await the full development of electrogravitics

to enable large pieces of equipment to be moved out of the region

of the earth's strongest gravity effects. So, though electrostatic

motors were thought of in 1925, electrogravitics had its birth after

the War, when Townsend Brown sought to improve on the various

proposals that then existed for electrostatic motors sufficiently to

produce some visible manifestation of sustained motion. Whereas

earlier electrostatic tests were essentially pure research

Brown's rigs were aimed from the outset at producing a flying

article. As a private venture he produced evidence of motion using

condensers in a couple of saucers suspended by arms rotating

round a central tower with input running down the arms. The

massive-k situation was summarized subsequently in a report,

Project Winterhaven, in 1952. Using the data some conclusions

were arrived at that might be expected from ten or more years of

-4-

intensive development - similar to that, for instance, applied to

the turbine engine. Using a number of assumptions as to the

nature of gravity, the report postulated a saucer as the basis of

a possible interceptor with Mach 3 capability. Creation of a

local gravitational system would confer upon the fighter the

sharp-edged changes of direction typical of motion in space.

The essence of electrogravitics thrust is the use of a very

strong positive charge on one side of the vehicle and a negative

on the other. The core of the motor is a condenser and the

ability of the condenser to hold its charge (the k-number) is the

yardstick of performance. With air as 1, current dielectrical

materials can yield 6 and use of barium aluminate can raise

this considerably, barium titanium oxide (a baked ceramic) can

offer 6,000 and there is promise of 30,000, which would be

sufficient for supersonic speed.

The original Brown rig produced 30 fps on a voltage of

around 50,000 and a small amount of current in the

milliamp range. There was no detailed explanation of gravity

in Project Winterhaven, but it was assumed that particle

dualism in the subatomic structure of gravity would coincide

in its effect with the issuing stream of electrons from the

electrostatic energy source to produce counterbary. The Brown

work probably remains a realistic approach to the practical

realization of electrostatic propulsion and sustentation. What-

ever may be discovered by the Gravity Research Foundation of

New Boston a complete understanding and synthetic reproduction

of gravity is not essential for limited success. The electro-

gravitics saucer can perform the function of a classic lifting

surface - it produces a pushing effect on the under surface and

a suction effect on the upper, but, unlike an airfoil, it does not

require a flow of air to produce the effect.

-5-

First attempts at electrogravitics are unlikely to produce

counterbary, but may lead to development of an electrostatic

VTOL vehicle. Even in its development form this might be an

advance on the molecular heat engine in its capabilities. But

hopes in the new science depend on an understanding of the

source and matter of gravity. It is fortuitous that lift can be

produced in the traditional fashion and if an understanding of

gravity remains beyond full practical control, electrostatic lift

might be an adjunct of some significance to modern thrust

producers. Research into electrostatics could prove beneficial

to turbine development, and heat engines in general, in view of

the usable electron potential round the periphery of any flame.

Materials for electrogravitics and especially the development

of commercial quantities of high-k material is another dividend

to be obtained from electrostatic research even if it produces no

counterbary. This is a line of development that Aviation Studies'

Gravity Research Group is following.

One of the interesting aspects of electrogravitics is that a

breakthrough in almost any part of the broad front of general

research on the intranuclear processes may be translated into

a meaningful advance towards the feasibility of electrogravitics

systems. This demands constant monitoring in the most

likely areas of the physics of high energy sub-nuclear particles.

It is difficult to be overoptimistic about the prospects of gaining

so complete a grasp of gravity while the world's physicists are

still engaged in a study of fundamental particles - that is to say

those that cannot be broken down any more. Fundamental particles

are still being discovered - the most recent was the Segre-

Chamberlain-Wiegand attachment to the bevatron, which was

used to isolate the missing anti-proton, which must - or should

be presumed to - exist according to Dirac's theory of the electron.

-6-

Much of the accepted mathematics of particles would be wrong

if the anti-proton was proved to be non-existent. Earlier

Eddington has listed the fundamental particles as:-

e The charge of an electron.

m the mass of an electron.

M the mass of a proton.

h Planck's contant

c The velocity of light.

G The constant of gravitation, and

L The cosmological constant

It is generally held that no one of these can be inferred from

the others. But electrons may well disappear from among the

fundamental particles, though, as Russell says, it is likely that

e and m will survive. The constants are much more established

than the interpretation of them and are among the most solid of

achievements in modern physics.

* * *

Gravity may be defined as a small scale departure from

Euclidean space in the general theory of relativity. The

gravitational constant is one of four dimensionless constants:

first, the mass relation of the nucleon and electron. Second is

e^2/hc, third, the Compton wavelength of the proton, and fourth

is the gravitational constant, which is the ratio of the electrostatic

-7-

to the gravitational attraction between the electron and the

proton.

One of the stumbling blocks in electrogravitics is the

absence of any satisfacotry theory linking these four dimension-

less quantities. Of the four, moreover, gravity is decidedly the

most complex, since any explanation would have to satisfy both

cosmic and quantum relations more acceptably and intelligibly even

than in the unified field theory. A gravitational constant of

around 10^-30 has emerged from quantum research and this has

been used as a tool for finding theories that could link the two

relations. This work is now in full progress, and developments

have to be watched for the aviation angle. Hitherto Dirac,

Eddington, Jordan and others have produced differences in theory

that are too wide to be accepted as consistent. It means therefore

that (i) without a cosmological basis, and (ii) with an imprecise

quantum basis and (iii) a vague hypothesis on the interaction,

much remains still to be discovered. Indeed some say that a

single interacting theory to link up the dimensionless constants

is one of three major unresolved basic problems of physics.

The other two main problems are the extension of quantum theory

and a more detailed knowledge of the fundamental particles.

All this is some distance from Newton, who saw gravity as

a force acting on a body from a distance, leading to the tendency

of bodies to accelerate towards each other. He allied this

assumption with Euclidean geometry, and time was assumed as

uniform and acted independently of space. Bodies and particles

in space normally moved uniformly in straight lines according

to Newton, and to account for the way they sometimes do not do

so, he used the idea of a force of gravity acting at a distance,

in which particles of matter cause in others an acceleration

proportional to their mass, and inversely proportional to the

-8-

square of the distance between them.

But Einstein showed how the principle of least action, or

the so-called cosmic laziness means that particles, on the

contrary, follow the easiest path along geodesic lines and as a

result they get readily absorbed into space-time. So was born

non-linear physics. The classic example of non-linear physics

is the experiment in bombarding a screen with two slits. When

both slits are open particles going through are not the sum of

the two individually but follows a non-linear equation. This

leads on to wave-particle dualism and that in turn to the

Heisenberg uncertainty principle in which an increase in accuracy

in measurement of one physical quantity means decreasing

accuracy in measuring the other. If time is measured accurately

energy calculations will be in error; the more accurate the

position of a particle is established the less certain the velocity

will be; and so on. This basic principle of the acausality of

microphysics affects the study of gravity in the special and

general theories of relativity. Lack of pictoral image in the

quantum physics of this interrelationship is a difficulty at the

outset for those whose minds remain obstinately Euclidean.

In the special theory of relativity, space-time is seen only

as an undefined interval which can be defined in any way that is

convenient and the Newtonian idea of persistent particles in

motion to explain gravity cannot be accepted. It must be seen

rather as a synthesis of forces in a four dimensional continuum,

three to establish the position and one the time. The general

theory of relativity that followed a decade later was a

geometrical explanation of gravitation in which bodies take the

geodesic path through space-time. In turn this means that

instead of the idea of a force acting at a distance it is assumed

that space, time, radiation and particles are linked and

variations in them from gravity are due rather to the nature of

space.

-9-

Thus gravity of a body such as the earth, instead of pulling

object towards it as Newton postulated, is adjusting the

characteristics of space and, it may be inferred, the quantum

mechanics of space in the vicinity of the gravitational force.

Electrogravitics aims at correcting this adjustment to put

matter, so to speak, 'at rest'.

* * *

One of the difficulties in 1954 and 1955 was to get aviation

to take electrogravitics seriously. The name alone was enough

to put people off. However, in the trade much progress has

been made and now most major companies in the United States

are interested in counterbary. Groups are being organised to

study electrostatic and electromagnetic phenomena. Most of

industry's leaders have made some reference to it. Douglas

has now stated that it has counterbary on its work agenda but

does not expect results yet awhile. Hiller has referred to new

forms of flying platform, Glenn Martin say gravity control could

be achieved in six years, but they add that it would entail a

Manhattan District type of effort to bring it about. Sikorsky,

one of the pioneers, more or less agrees with the Douglas verdict

and says that gravity is tangible and formidable, but there must

be a physical carrier for this immense trans-spatial force. This

implies that where a physical manifestation exists, a physical

device and be developed for creating a similar force moving in

the opposite direction to cancel it. Clarke Electronics state

thay have a rig, and add that in their view the source of

gravity's force will be understood sooner than some people

think. General Electric is working on the use of electronic rigs

designed to make adjustments to gravity - this line of attack

has the advantage of using rigs already in existence for other

defence work. Bell also has an experimental rig intended, as

-10-

the company puts it, to cancel out gravity, and Lawrence Bell

has said he is convinced that practical hardware will emerge

from current programs. Grover Leoning is certain that what

he referred to as an electro-magnetic contra-gravity mechanism

will be developed for practical use. Convair is extensively

committed to the work with several rigs. Lear Inc., autopilot

and electronic engineers have a division of the company working

on gravity research and so also has the Sperry division of

Sperry-Rand. This list embraces most of the U.S. aircraft

industry. The remainder, Curtiss-Wright, Lockheed, Boeing

and North American have not yet declared themselves, but all

these four are known to be in various stages of study with and

without rigs.

In addition, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is

working on gravity, the Gravity Research Foundation of New

Boston, the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, the

CalTech Radiation Laboratory, Princeton University and the

University of North Carolina are all active in gravity. Glenn

L. Martin is setting up a Research Institute for Advanced Study

which has a small staff working on gravity research with the

unified field theory and this group is committed to extensive

programs of applied research. Many others are also known to

be studying gravity, some are known also to be planning

a general expansion in this field, such as the proposed

Institute for Pure Physics at the University of North Carolina.

A certain amount of work is also going on in Europe. One

of the French nationalized constructors and one company outside

the nationalized elements have been making preliminary studies,

and a little company money has in one case actually been

committed. Some work is also going on in Britain where rigs

are now in existence. Most of it is private tenure work, such

-11-

as that being done by Ed Hull, a colleague of Townsend Brown

who, as much as anybody, introduced Europe to electrogravitics.

Aviation Studies' Gravity Research Group is doing some work,

mainly on k studies, and is sponsoring dielectric investigations.

One Swedish company and two Canadian companies have

been making studies, and quite recently the Germans have

woken up to the possibilities. Several of the companies have

started digging out some of the early German papers on wave

physics. They are almost certain to plan a gravitics program.

Curiously enough the Germans during the war paid no attention

to electrogravitics. This is one line of advance that they did

not pioneer in any way and is still basically a U.S. creation.

Townsend Brown in electrogravitics is the equivalent of Frank

Whittle in gas turbines. This German overlooking of

electrostatics is even more surprising when it is remembered

how astonishingly advanced and prescient the Germans were in

nuclear research. (The modern theory of making thermonuclear

weapons without plutonium fission initiators returns to the original

German idea that was dismissed, even ridiculed. The Germans

never went very far with fission, indeed they doubted that this

chain would ever be made to work.) The German air industry,

still in the embryo stage, has included electrogravitics among

the subjects it intends to examine when establishing the policy

that the individual companies will adopt after the present early

stage of foreign licence has enabled industry to get abreast

of the other countries in aircraft development.

* * *

It is impossible to read through this summary of the

widening efforts being made to understand the nature of matter

of gravity without sharing the hope that many groups now have,

of major theoretical breakthroughs occurring before very long.

-12-

Experience in nucleonics has shown that when attempts to win

knowledge on this scale are made, advances are soon seen.

There are a number of elements in industry, and some

managements, who see gravity as a problem for later genera-

tions. Many see nothing in it all and they might be right. But as

said earlier, if Dr. Vaclav Hlavaty thinks gravity is

potentially controllable that surely should be justification

enough, and indeed inspiration, for physicists to apply their

minds and for management to take a risk. Hlavaty is the only

man who thinks he can see a way of doing the mathematics to

demonstrate Einstein's unified field theory - something that

Einstein himself said was beyond him. Relativity and the unified

field theory go to the root of electrogravitics and the shifts

in thinking, the hopes and fears, and a measure of progress is

to be obtained only in the last resort from men of this stature.

Major theoretical breakthroughs to discover the sources

of gravity will be made by the most advanced intellects using

the most advanced research tools. Aviation's role is therefore

to impress upon physicists of this calibre with the urgency of

the matter and to aid them with statistical and peripheral

investigations that will help to clarify the background to the

central mathematics and physical puzzles. Aviation could also

assist by recruiting some of these men as advisers. Convair has

taken the initiative with its recently established panel of advisers

on nuclear projects, which include Dr. Edward Teller of the

University of California. At the same time much can be done in

development of laboratory rigs, condenser research and dielectric

development, which do not require anything like the same

cerebral capacity to get results and make a practical contribution.

As gravity is likely to be linked with the new particles, only

the highest powered particle accelerators are likely to be of use

-13-

in further fundamental knowledge. The country with the biggest

tools of this kind is in the best position to examine the

characteristics of the particles and from these countries the

greatest advances seem most likely.

Though the United States has the biggest of the bevatrons -

the Berkeley bevatron is 6.2 bev - the Russians have a 10 bev

accelerator in construction which, when it is completed, will

be the world's largest. At Brookhaven a 25 bev instrument is

in development which, in turn, will be the biggest. Other

countries without comparable facilities are of course at a

great disadvantage from the outset in the contest to discover the

explanations of gravity. Electrogravitics, moreover, unfortunately

competes with nuclear studies for its facilities. The clearest

thinking brains are bound to be attracted to locations where the

most extensive laboratory equipment exists. So, one way and

another, results are most likely to come from the major

countries with the biggest undertakings. Thus the nuclear

facilities have a direct bearing on the scope for electrogravitics

work.

The OEEC report in January made the following points:-

The U.S. has six to eight entirely different types of reactor in

operation and many more under construction. Europe has now

two different types in service.

The U.S. has about 30 research reactors plus four in Britain,

two in France.

The U.S. has two nuclear-powered marine engines. Europe has

none, but the U.K. is building one.

Isotope separation plants for the enrichment of uranium in

the U.S. are roughly 11 times larger than the European

plant in Britain.

Europe's only heavy water plant (in Norway) produces somewhat

less than one-twentieth of American output.

In 1955 the number of technicians employed in nuclear energy

work in the U.S. was about 15,000; there are about 5,000 in

Britain, 1,800 in France, and about 1,000 in the rest of

Europe. But the working party says that pessimistic conclusions

should not be drawn from these comparisons. European nuclear

energy effort is evenly divided at the moment, but some

countries have notable achievements to their credit and important

developments in prospect. The main reason for optimism is

that, taken as a whole, "Europe's present nuclear effort falls

very far short of its industrial potential".

Though gravity research, such as there has been of it,

has been unclassified, new principles and information gained

from the nuclear research facilities that have a vehicle application

is expected to be withheld.

The heart of the problem to understanding gravity is likely

to prove to be the way in which the very high energy sub-nuclear

particles convert something, whatever it is, continuously and

automatically into the tremendous nuclear and electromagnetic

forces. Once this key is understood, attention can later be

directed to finding laboratory means of duplicating the process

and reversing its force lines in some local environment and

returning the energy to itself to produce counterbary. Looking

beyond it seems possible that gravitation will be shown to be a

part of the universal electro-magnetic processes and controlled

-15-

in the same way as a light wave or radio wave. This is a synthesis

of the Einstein and Hlavaty concepts. Hence it follows that though

in its initial form the mechanical processes for countering

gravity may initially be massive to deal with the massive forces

involved, eventually this could be expected to form some central

power generation unit. Barycentric control in some required

quantity could be passed over a distance by a form of radio

wave. The prime energy source to energise the waves would

of course be nuclear in its origins.

It is difficult to say which lines of detailed development

being processed in the immediate future is more likely to yield

significant results. Perhaps the three most promising are:

first, the new attempt by the team of men led by Chamberlain

working with the Berkeley bevatron to find the anti-neutron,

and to identify more of the characteristics of the anti-proton*

and each of the string of high energy particles that have been

discovered during recent operations at 6.2 bev.

A second line of approach is the United States National

Bureau of Standards program to pin down with greater accuracy

the acceleration values of gravity. The presently accepted figure

___________________________________________________________

*The reaction is as follows: protons are accelerated to 6.2 bev,

and directed at a target of copper. When the proton projectile

hits a neutron in one of the copper atoms the following emerge:

the two original particles (the projectile and the struck neutron)

and a new pair of particles, a proton and anti-proton. The

anti-proton continues briefly until it hits another proton, then

both disappear and decay into mesons.

___________________________________________________________

-16-

of 32.174 feet per second per second is known to be not

comprehensive, though it has been sufficiently accurte

for the limited needs of industry hitherto. The NBS program

aims at re-determining the strength of gravity to within one

part of a million. The present method thas been to hold a ball

16 feet up and chart the elapsed time of descent with electronic

measuring equipment. The new program is based on the old, but

with this exceptional degree of accuracy it is naturally immensely

more difficult and is expected to take 3 years.

A third promising line is the new technique of measuring

high energy particles in motion that was started by the

University of California last year. This involves passing

cosmic rays through a chamber containing a mixture of gas,

alcohol and water vapour. This creates charged atoms, or

positive ions, by knocking electrons off the gas molecules. A

sudden expansion of the chamber results in a condensation of

water droplets along the track which can be plotted on a

photographic plate. This method makes it easier to assess the

energy of particles and to distinguish one from the other. It

also helps to establish the characteristics of the different

types of particles. The relationship between these high energy

particles, and their origin, and characteristics, have a bearing

on electrogravitics in general.

So much of what has to be discovered as a necessary

preliminary to gravity is of no practical use by itself. There is

no conceivable use, for instance, for the anti-proton, yet its

discovery even at a cost of $9-million is essential to check the

mathematics of the fundamental components of matter. Similarly

it is necessary to check that all the nuclear ghosts that have been

postulated theoretically do in fact exist. It is not, moreover,

sufficient, as in the past, only to observe the particles by

-17-

radiation counters. In each instance a mechanical maze has to

be devised and attached to a particle accelerator to trap only

the particle concerned. Each discovery becomes a wedge for

a deeper probe of the nucleus. Many of the particles of very high

energy have only a fleeting existence and collisions that give

rise to them from bevatron bombardment is a necessary pre-

requisite to an understanding of gravity. There are no shortcuts

to this process.

Most of the major programs for extending human knowledge

on gravity are being conducted with instruments already in use

for nuclear research and to this extent the cost of work

exclusively on gravitational examinations is still not of major

proportions. This has made it difficult for aviation to gauge

the extent of the work in progress on gravity research.

* * *

-18-

CONCLUSIONS

1. No attempts to control the magnitude or direction of the

earth's gravitational force have yet been successful. But if

the explanation of gravity is to be found in the as yet undeter-

mined characteristics of the very high energy particles it is

becoming increasingly possible with the bevatron to work with

the constituent matter of gravity. It is therfore reasonable to

expect that the new bevatron may, before long, be used to

demonstrate limited gravitational control.

2. An understanding and identification of these particles is on

the frontiers of human knowledge, and a full assessment of them

is one of the major unresolved puzzles of the nucleus. An

associated problem is to discover a theory to account for the

cosmic and quantum relations of gravity, and a theory to link

the gravitational constant with the other three dimensionless

constants.

3. Though the obstacles to an adequate grasp of microphysics

still seem formidable, the transportation rewards that could

follow from electrogravitics are as high as can be envisaged.

In a weightless environment, movement with sharp-edged

changes of direction could offer unique manoeuvrability.

4. Determination of the enviroonment of the anti-proton, discovery

-19-

of the anti-neutron and closer examination of the other high

energy particles are preliminaries to the hypothesis that

gravity is one aspect of electromagnetism that may eventually

be controlled like a wave. When the structure of the nucleus

becomes clearer, the influence of the gravitational force upon

the nucleus and the nature of its behaviour in space will be more

readily understood. This is a great advance on the Newtonian

concept of gravity acting at a distance.

5. Aviation's role appears to be to establish facilities to

handle many of the peripheral and statistical investigations to

help fill in the background on electrostatics.

6. A distinction has to be made between electrostatic energy

for propulsion and counterbary. Counterbary is the manipulation

of gravitational force lines; barycentric control is the adjustment

to such manipulative capability to produce a stable type of

motion suitable for transportation.

7. Electrostatic energy sufficient to produce low speeds (a

few thousand dynes) has already been demonstrated. Generation

of a region of positive electrostatic energy on one side of a plate

and negative on the other sets up the same lift or propulsion

effect as the pressure and suction below and above a wing,

except that in the case of electrostatic application no airflow is

necessary.

8. Electrostatic energy sufficient to produce a Mach 3 fighter

is possible with megavolt energies and a k of over 10,000.

-20-

9. k figures of 6,000 have been obtained from some ceramic

materials and there are prospects of 30,000.

10. Apart from electrogravitics there are other rewards from

investment in electrostatic equipment. Automation, autonetics

and even turbine development use similar laboratory facilities.

11. Progress in electrogravitics probably awaits a new genius

in physics who can find a single equation to tie up all the

conflicting observations and theory on the structure and

arrangement of forces and the part the high energy particles

play in the nucleus. This can occur any time, and the chances

are improved now that bev energies are being obtained in

controlled laboratory conditions.

* * *

APPENDIX I

EXTRACTS FROM AVIATION REPORT

-21-

ANTI-GRAVITATION RESEARCH

The basic research and technology behind electro-anti-

gravitation is so much in its infancy that this is perhaps one

field of development where not only the methods but the ideas

are secret. Nothing therefore can be discussed freely at the

moment. Very few papers on the subject have been prepared so

far, and the only schemes that have seen the light of day are for

pure research into rigs designed to make objects float around

freely in a box. There are various radio applications, and

aviation medecine departments have been looking for something

that will enable them to study the physiological effects on the

digestion and organs of an environment without gravity. There

are however long term aims of a more revolutionary

nature that envisage equipment that can defeat gravity.

Aviation Report 20 August 1954

MANAGERIAL POLICY FOR ANTI-GRAVITICS

The prospect of engineers devising gravity-defeating

equipment - or perhaps it should be described as the creation

of pockets of weightless environments - does suggest that as

a long term policy aircraft constructors will be required to

place even more emphasis on electro-mechanical industrial

plant, than is now required for the transition from manned

to unmanned weapons. Anti-gravitics work is therefore likely to

go to companies with the biggest electrical laboratories and

facilities. It is also apparent that anti-gravitics, like other

advanced sciences, will be initially sponsored for its weapon

capabilities. There are perhaps two broad ways of using

the science, one is to postulate the design of advanced type

projectiles on their best inherent capabilities, and the more

critical parameters (that now constitutes the design limitation)

can be eliminated by anti-gravitics. The other, which is a

longer term plan, is to create an entirely new environment with

devices operating entirely under an anti-gravitic envelope.

Aviation Report 24 August 1954

-22-

THE GREATER THE EASIER

Propulsion and atomic energy trends are similar in one

respect: the more incredible the long term capabilities are, the

easier it is to attain them. It is strange that the greatest of

nature's secrets can be harnessed with decreasing industrial

effort, but greatly increasing mental effort. The Americans

went through the industrial torture to produce tritium for

the first thermonuclear experiment, but later both they and the

Russians were able to achieve much greater results with the

help of lithium 6 hydride. The same thing is happening in

aviation propulsion; the nuclear fuels are promising to be

tremendously powerful in their effect, but excessively complicated

in their application, unless there can be some means of direct

conversion as in the strontium 90 cell. But lying behind and

beyond the nuclear fuels is the linking of electricity to gravity,

which is an incomparably more powerful way of harnessing

energy than the only method known to human intellect at

present - electricity and magnetism. Perhaps the magic of

barium aluminum oxide will perform the miracle in propulsion

that lithium 6 hydride has done in the fusion weapon. Certainly

it is a well-known material in dielectrics, but when one talks

of massive-k, one means of course five figures. At this early

stage it is difficult to relate k to Mach numbers with any certainty,

but realizable k can, with some kinds of arithmetic, produce

astounding velocities. They are achievable, moreover, with

decreasing complexity, indeed the ultimate becomes the easiest

in term of engineering, but the most hideous in terms of

theory. Einstein's general theory of relativity is, naturally,

and important factor, but some of the postulates appear to depend

on the unified field theory, which cannot yet be physically

checked because noone knows how to do it. Einstein hopes

to find a way of doing this before he dies.

Aviation Report 31 August 1954

GRAVITICS FORMULATIONS

All indications are that there has still been little cognizance

of the potentialities of electrostatic propulsion and it will be a major

-23-

undertaking to re-arrange aircraft plants to conduct large-

scale research and development into novel forms of dielectric

and to improve condenser efficiencies and to develop the novel

type of materials used for fabrication of the primary structure.

Some extremely ambitious theoretical programs have been

submitted and work towards realization of a manned vehicle

has begun. One the evidence, there are far more definite

indications that the incredible claims are realizable than there was,

for instance, in supposing that uranium fission would result in

a bomb. At least it is known, proof positive, that motion, using

surprisingly low k, is possible. The fantastic control that again

is feasible, has not yet been demonstrated, but there is no

reason to suppose the arithmetic is faulty, especially as it has

already led to a quite brisk example of actual propulsion.

That first movement was indeed an historic occasion, reminiscent

of the momentous day at Chicago when the first pile went critical,

and the phenomenon was scarcely less weird. It is difficult to

imagine just where a well-organized examination into long term

gravitics would end. Though a circular planform is

electrostatically convenient, it does not necessarily follow that

the requirements of control by differential changes would be

the same. Perhaps the strangest part of this whole chapter is

how the public managed to foresee the concept, though not of

course the theoretical principles that gave rise to it, before

physical tests confirmed that the mathematics was right. It is

interesting also that there is no point of contact between the

conventional science of aviation and the New: it is a radical

offshoot with no common principles. Aerodynamics, structures,

heat engines, flapping controls, and all the rest of aviation is

part of what might be called the Wright Brothers era, even the

Mach 2.5 thermal barrier piercers are still Wright Brothers

concepts, in the sense that they fly and they stall, and they run

out of fuel after a short while, and they defy the earth's pull

for a short while. Thus this century will be divided into two parts -

almost to the day. The first half belonged to the Wright Brothers

who foresaw nearly all the basic issues in which gravity was

the bitter foe. In part of the second half, gravity will be the great

provider. Electrical energy, rather irrelevant for propulsion in

-24-

the first half becomes a kind of catalyst to motion in the second

half of the century.

Aviation Report 7 September 1954

ELECTRO-GRAVITICS PARADOX

Realization of electro-static propulsion seems to depend

on two theoretical twists and two practical ones. The two

theoretical puzzles are: first, how to make a condenser the

centre of a propulsion system, and the second is how to link the

condenser system with the gravitational field. There is a

third problem, but it is some way off yet, which is how to

manipulate kva for control in all three axes as well as for

propulsion and lift. The two practical tricks are first how, with

say a Mach 3 weapon in mind, to handle a 50,000 kva within the

envelope of a thin pancake of 35 feet in diameter and second how

to generate such power from within so small a space. The

electrical power in a small aircraft is more than a fair sized

community the analogy being that a single rocketjet can provide

as much power as can be obtained from the Hoover Dam. It

will naturally take as long to develop electro-static propulsion

as it has taken to coax the enormous power outputs from heat

engines. True there might be flame in the electro-gravitic

propulsion system, but it would not be a heat engine - the

temperature of the flame would be incidental to the function of

the chemical burning process.

The curious thing is that though electro-static propulsion is

the antithesis of magnetism,* Einstein's unified field theory is an

attempt to link gravitation with electro-magnetism. This all-

embracing theory goes on logically from the general theory of

relativity, that gives an ingenious geometrical interpretation of

the concept of force which is mathematically consistent with

gravitation but fails in the case of electro-magnetism, while the

special theory of relativity is concerned with the relationship

between mass and energy. The general theory of relativity fails to

account for the electro-magnetism because the forces are proportional

to the charge and not to the mass. The unified field theory is one of

a number of attempts that have been made to bridge this gap, but it is

baffling to imagine how it could ever be observed. Einstein himself

thinks it is virtually impossible. However, Hlavaty claims to have

solved the equations by assuming that gravitation is a manifestation

of electro-magnetism.

This being so it is all the more incredible that electro-static

__________________________________________________________________

*Though in a sense this is true, it is better expressed in the body

of this report than it was here in 1954.

-25-

propulsion (with kva for convenience fed into the system and not

self-generated) has actually been demonstrated. It may be that

to apply all this very abstruse physics to aviation it will be

necesary to accept that the theory is more important than this

or that interpretation of it. This is how the physical constants,

which are now regarded as among the most solid of achievements

in modern physics, have become workable, and accepted.

Certainly all normal instincts would support the Einstein series

of postulations, and if this is so it is a matter of conjecture

where it will lead in the long term future of the electro-gravitic

science.

Aviation Report 10 September 1954

ELECTRO-GRAVITIC PROPULSION SITUATION

Under the terms of Project Winterhaven the proposals to

develop electro-gravitics to the point of realizing a Mach 3

combat type of disc were not far short of the extensive effort that

was planned for the Manhattan District.* Indeed the drive to

develop the prime mover is in some respects rather similar

to the experiments that led to the release of nuclear energy in

the sense that both involve fantastic mathematical capacity

and both are sciences so new that other allied sciences cannot

be of very much guide. In the past two years since the principle

of motion by means of massive-k was first demonstrated on a

test rig, progress has been slow. But the indications are now

thet the Pentagon is ready to sponsor a range of devices to

help further the knowledge. In effect the new family of TVs would be

on the same tremendous scope that was envisaged by the X-1,2,3,4

and 5 and the D.558s that were all created for the purpose of destroying

the sound barrier - which they effectively did, but it is a process

that is taking ten solid years of hard work to complete. (Now after

7 years the X-2 has yet to start its tests and the X-3 is still in

performance testing stage). Tentative targets ...<illegible>

anticipate that the first disc should be complete before 1960 and it

would take the whole of the sixties to develop it properly, even

though some combat things might be available ten years from now.

One thing seems certain at this stage, that the companies

likely to dominate the science will be those with the biggest

________________________________________________________________

*The proposals, it should be added, were not accepted.

-26-

computors to work out the ramifications of the basic theory.

Douglas is easily the world's leader in computor capacity,

followed by Lockheed and Convair. The frame incidentally is

indivisible from the engine. If there is to ba any division of

responsibility it would be that the engine industry might

become responsible for providing the electrostatic energy

(by, it is thought, a kind of flame) and the frame maker for the

condenser assembly which is the core of the main structure.

Aviation Report 12 October 1954

GRAVITICS STUDY WIDENING

The French are now understood to be pondering the most

effective way of entering the field of electro-gravitic propulsion

systems. But not the least of the difficulties is to know just where

to begin. There are practically no patents so far that throw very

much light on the mathematics of the relation between

electricity and gravity. There is, of course, a large number of

patents on the general subject of motion and force, and some of

these may prove to have some application. There is, however,

a series of working postulations embodied in the original Project

Winterhaven, but no real attempt has been made in the working

papers to go into the detailed engineering. All that had actually

been achieved up to just under a year ago was a series of fairly

accurate extrapolations from the sketchy data that has so far

been actually observed. The extrapolation of 50 mph to 1,800

mph, however, (which is what the present hopes and aspirations

amount to) is bound to be a rather vague exercise. This explains

American private views that nothing can be reasonably expected

from the science for yet awhile. Meanwhile, the NACA is active,

and nearly all of the Universities are doing wokr that borders close

to what is involved here, and something fruitful is likely to turn

up before very long.

Aviation Report 19 October 1954

GRAVITIC STEPS

Specification writers seem to be still rather stumped to

know what to ask for in the very hazy science of electro-gravitic

-27-

propelled vehicles. They are at present faced with having to plan

the first family of things - first of these is the most realistic

type of operational test rig, and the second the first type of test

vehicle. In turn this would lead to sponsoring of a combat disc.

The preliminary test rigs which gave only feeble propulsion have

been somewhat improved, but of course the speeds reached so

far are only those more associated with what is attained on the

road rather than in the air. But propulsion is now known to be

possible, as it is a matter of feeding enough KVA into

condensers with better k figures. 50,000 is a magic figure

for the combat saucer, it the is the amount of KVA and this amount

of k that can be translated into Mach 3 speeds.

Meanwhile Glenn Martin now feels ready to say in public

that they are examining the unified field theory to see what can

be done. It would probably be truer to say that Martin and other

companies are now looking for men who can make some kind of

sense out of Einstein's equations. There's nobody in the air

industry at present with the faintest idea of what it is all about.

Also, just as necessary, companies have somehow to find

administrators who know enough of the mathematics to be able

to guess what kind of industrial investment is likely to be necessary

for the company to secure the most rewarding prime contracts in

the new science. This again is not so easy since much of the

mathematics just cannot be translated into words. You either

understand the figures, or you cannot ever have it explained to

you. This is rather new because even things like indeterminacy

in quantum mechanics can be more or less put into words.

Perhaps the main thing for management to bear in mind in

recruiting men is that essentially electro-gravitics is a branch of

wave technology and much of it starts with Planck's dimensions

of action, energy and time, and some if this is among the most

firm and least controversial sections of modern atomic physics.

Aviation Report 19 November 1954

ELECTRO-GRAVITICS PUZZLE

Back in 1948 and 49, the public in the U.S. had a

surprisingly clear idea of what a flying saucer should, or could,

do. There has never at any time been any realistic explanation of

-28-

what propulsion agency could make it do those things, but its

ability to move within its own gravitation field was presupposed

from its manoeuvrability. Yet all this was at least two years

before electro-static energy was shown to produce propulsion.

It is curious that the public were so ahead of the empiricists

on this occasion, and there are two possible explanations. One

is that optical illusions or atmospheric phenomena offered a

preconceived idea of how the ultimate aviation device ought to

work. The other explanation might be that this was a

recrudescence of Jung's theory of the Universal Mind which

move up and down in relation to the capabilities of the highest

intellects and this may be a case of it reaching a very high peak

of perception.

But for the air industries to realize an electro-gravitic

aircraft means a return to basic principles in nuclear physics,

and a re-examination of much in wave technology that has hitherto

been taken for granted. Anything that goes any way

towards proving the unified field theory will have as great a

bearing on electro-gravitics efforts as on the furtherance of

nuclear power generally. But the aircraft industry might as

well face up to the fact that priorities will in the end be

competing with existing nuclear science commitments. The

fact that electro-gravitics has important applications other

than for a weapon will however strengthen the case for

governments to get in on the work going on.

Aviation Report 28 January 1955

MANAGEMENT NOTE FOR ELECTRO-GRAVITICS

The gas turbine engine produced two new companies in

the U.S. engine field and they have, between them, at various

times offered the traditional primes rather formidable

competition. Indeed GE at this moment has, in the view of some,

taken the Number Two position. In Britain no new firms managed

to get a footing, but one, Metro-Vick, might have done if it had

put its whole energies into the business. It is on the whole

unfortunate for Britain that no bright newcomer has been able to

screw up competition in the engine field as English Electric have

done in the airframe business.

-29-

Unlike the turbine engine, electro-gravitics is not just

a new propulsion system, it is a new mode of thought in

aviation and communications, and it is something that may

become all-embracing. Theoretical studies of the science

unfortunately have to extend right down to the mathematics of

the meson and there is no escape from that. But the relevant

facts wrung from the nature of the nuclear structure will have

their impact on the propulsion system, the airframe and also

its guidance. The airframe, as such, would not exist, and what

is now a complicated stressed structure becomes some

convenient form of hard envelope. New companies therefore

who would like to see themselves as major defence prime

contractors in ten or fifteen years time are the ones most likely

to stimulate development. Several typical companies in Britain

and the U.S. come to mind - outfits like AiResearch, Raytheon,

Plessey in England, Rotex and others. But the companies have

to face a decade of costly research into theoretical physics and

it means a great deal of trust. Companies are mostly overloaded

already and they cannot afford it, but when they sit down and

think about the matter they can scarcely avoid the conclusion

that they cannot affor not to be in at the beginning.

Aviation Report 8 February 1955

ELECTRO-GRAVITICS BREAKTHROUGHS

Lawrence Bell said last week that he thought that the tempo

of development leading to the use of nuclear fuels and anti-

gravitational vehicles (he meant presumabley ones that create

their own gravitational field independently of the earth's) would

accelerate. He added that the breakthroughs now feasible will

advance their introduction ahead of the time it has taken to

develop the turbojet to its present pitch. Beyond the thermal

barrier was a radiation barrier, and he might have added ozone

poisoning and meteorite hazards, and beyond that again a time

barrier. Time however is not a single calculable entity and

Einstein has taught that an absolute barrier to aviation is the

environmental barrier in which there are physical limits to any

kind of movement from one point in space-time continuum to

another. Bell (the company not the man) have a reputation as

-30-

experimentalists and are not so earthy as some of the other U.S.

companies; so while this first judgement on progress with

electrogravitics is interesting, further word is awaited from

the other major elements of the air business. Most of the

companies are now studying several forms of propulsion

without heat engines though it is early days yet to determine

which method will see the light of day first. Procurement will

open out because the capabilities of such aircraft are

immeasureably greater than those envisaged with any known form

of engine.

Aviation Report 15 July 1955

THERMONUCLEAR-ELECTROGRAVITICS INTERACTION

The point has been made that the most likely way of

achieving the comparatively low fusion heat needed - 1,000,000

degrees provided it can be sustained (which it cannot be in

fission for more than a microsecond or two at a time) - is by use of

a linear accelerator. The concentration of energy that may be

obtained when accelerators are rigged in certain ways make the

production of very high temperatures feasible but whether they

could be concentrated enough to avoid a thermal heat problem

remains to be seen. It has also been suggested that linear

accelerators would be the way to develop the high electrical

energies needed for creation of local gravitation systems. It

is possible therefore to imagine that the central core of a

future air vehicle might be a linear accelerator which would

create a local weightless state by use of electrostatic energy

and turn heat into energy without chemical processes for

propulsion. Eventually - towards the end of this century - the

linear accelerator itself would not be required and a ground

generating plant would transmit the necessary energy for both

purposes by wave propagation.

Aviation Report 30 August 1955

POINT ABOUT THERMONUCLEAR REACTION REACTORS

The 20 year estimate bye the AEC last week that lies

between present research frontiers and the fusion reactor

-31-

probably refers to the time it will take to tap fusion heat. But

it may be thought that rather than use the molecular and

chemical processes of twisting heat into thrust, it would be more

appropriate to use the new heat source in conjunction with some

form of nuclear thrust producer which would be in the form

of electrostatic energy. The first two Boeing nuclearjet

prototypes now under way are being designed to take either

molecular jets or nuclear jets in cse the latter are held up

for one reason or another. But the change from molecular to

direct nuclear thrust production in conjunction with the

thermonuclear reactor is likely to make the aircraft designed

around the latter a totally different breed of cat. It is also

expected to take longer than two decades, though younger

executives in trade might expect to live to see a prototype.

Aviation Report 14 October 1955

ELECTROGRAVITICS FEASIBILITY

Opinion on the prospects of using electrostatic energy for

propulsion, and eventually for creation of a local gravitational

field isolated from the earth's has naturally polarized into the two

opposite extremes. There are those who say it is nonsense from

start to finish, and those who are satisfied from performance

already physically manifest that it is possible and will produce air

vehicles with absolute capabilities and no moving parts. The

feasibility of a Mach 3 fighter (the present aim of studies) is

dependent on a rather large k extrapolation, considering the pair

of saucers that have physically demonstrated the principle only

achieved a speed of some 30 fps. But, and this is important, they

have attained a working velocity using a very inefficient (even by

today's knowledge) form of condenser complex. These humble

beginnings are surely as hopeful as Whittle's early postulations.

It was, by the way, largely due to the early references

in Aviation report that this work is gathering momentum in the U.S.

Similar studies are beginning in France, and in England some men

are on the job full time.

Aviation Report 15 November 1955

-32-

ELECTRO-GRAVITICS EFFORT WIDENING

Companies studying the implications of gravitics are said,

in a new statement, to include Glenn Martin, Convair, Sperry-

Rand, Sikorsky, Bell, Lear Inc. and Clark Electronics. Other

companies who have previously evinced interest include Lockheed,

Douglas and Hiller. The remainder are not disinterested, but

have not given public support to the new science - which is

widening all the time. The approach in the U.S. is in a sense

more ambitious than might have been expected. The logical

approach, which has been suggested by Aviation Studies, is to

concentrate on improving the output of electrostatic rigs in

existence that are know to be able to provide thrust. The aim

would be to concentrate on electrostatics for propulsion first

and widen the practical engineering to include establishment of

local field forcelines, independent of those of the earth's,

to provide unfettered vertical movement as and when the

mathematics develops.

However, the U.S. approach is rather to put money into

fundamental theoretical physics of gravitation in an effort first

to create the local gravitational field. Working rigs would follow

in the wake of the basic discoveries. Probably the correct course

would be to sponsor both approaches, and it is now time that the

military stepped in with big funds. The trouble about the

idealistic approach to gravity is that the aircraft companies do

not have the men to conduct such work. There is every

expectation in any case that the companies likely to find the

answers lie outside the aviation field. These would emerge as

the masters of aviation in its broadest sense.

The feeling is therefore that a company like A.T. & T. is

most likely to be first in this field. This giant company (unknown

in the air and weapons field) has already revolutionized modern

warfare with the development of the junction transistor and is

expected to find the final answers to absolute vehicle levitation.

This therefore is where the bulk of the sponsoring money should go.

Aviation Report 9 December 1955

* * *

APPENDIX II

ELECTROSTATIC PATENTS

-34-

The following patents derive from P. Jolivet (Algiers), marked 'A'

and from N.J. Felici, E. Gartner (Centre National des Recherches

Scientifique - CRNS ) later also by R. Morel, M. Point, etc... (S.A.

des Machines Electrostatiques -SAMES- and of Societe d'Appareils de Controle

et d'Equipment des Moteurs SACEM), marked 'G' (because the

development was centred at the University of Grenoble).

Mark Application

of Date England America France Germany Title

Applicant

G 9-11-44 637,434 2,486,140 993,017 860,649 Electrostatic Influence

14-8-45 56,027 Machine

G 17-11-44 639,653 2,523,688 993,052 815,667 Electrostatic Influence

Machine

A 28-2-45 912,444 Inducteurs de Machines

el'static

G 3-3-45 643,660 2,519,554 995,442 882,586 El'static Machines

A 8-8-45 915,929 Machines electrostatiques

a flasques

A 16-8-45 918,547 Generatrice el'statique

G 20-9-45 643,664 2,523,689 998,397 837,267 Electrostatic Machines

21-9-45 56,356

A 4-2-46 923,593 Generatrice el'statique

G 17-7-46 643,579 2,530,193 1002,031 811,595 Generating Machines

G 20-2-47 671,033 2,590,168 Ignition device

G 21-3-47 655,474 2,542,494 944,574 860,650 El'static Machines

Re-23,560

G 6-6-47 645,916 2,522,106 948,409 810,042 El'static Machines

A 16-6-47 947,921 Generatrice el'statique

G 16-1-48 669,645 2,540,327 961,210 810,043 El'static Machines

G 21-1-49 669,454 2,617,976 997,991 815,666 El'static Machines

G 7-2-49 675,649 2,649,566 1010,924 870,575 El'static Machines

G 15-4-49 693,914 2,604,502 1011,902 832,634 Commutators for

electrical machine

G 9-11-49 680,178 2,656,502 1004,950 850,485 El'static Generate

G 9-10-50 702,494 2,675,516 1030,623 El'static Generate

20-2-51

G 29-11-50 702,421 1028,596 El'static Generate

20-2-51

G 21-11-51 719,687 1051,430 F10421 El'static Machines

G 20-8-52 731,773 2,702,869 938,198 El'static Machines

G 6-11-52 745,489 El'static Generator

G 12-2-53 745,783 Rotating El'static Machines

G 8-1-52 715,010 2,685,654 1047,591 Rotating El'static

Machines producing a

periodical discharge

Appl'n No

G 27-2-54 5726/55 El'static Machines

G 8-3-54 6790/55 El'static Machines

G 28-1-55 2748/56 El'static Machines

Note: ALL THE LISTED PATENTS ARE STILL IN FORCE

Electrogravitic Systems

Share this page