Boeing Joins In Anti-Gravity Search

SimcoFrappe writes: "BBC News reports that Boeing is trying to extend the research of Russian scientist Dr. Yevgeny Podkletnov to develop a device to shield against gravity. The military branch of the British BAe Systems announced a similar program in 2000. One step closer to cheap space travel or just more sci-fi jive?"

Comments

It's about time.

[Rhombus]

Where are all the flying cars???

I was promised flying cars.

Re:It's about time.

[nizo]

Not to mention this whole antigravity deal will revive the sex industry (zero-g sex rooms anyone???) And don't forget bras, there are millions of women around the world who would appreciate the "load reducing" capabilities of an anti-gravity bra.

Looks simple

[Captain Pedantic]

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.

All Boeing have to do is strap a superconducting ceramic disc rotating over powerful electromagnets upside down into one of their planes!

Re:Looks simple

[sql*kitten]

All Boeing have to do is strap a superconducting ceramic disc rotating over powerful electromagnets upside down into one of their planes!

Powered, no doubt, by a slice of buttered toast strapped to the back of a cat!

But wait, how will cat-based purr-petual motion machine work if there's no gravity to pull the cat towards the floor? It's going to take all of Boeing's engineering talent to work that one out :-)

Re:Looks simple

[Bandman]

what you would have to do is put simple floor linoleum above and below the cat, thereby creating the desired effect.

In the words of Garth Algar, "It's almost /too/ easy."

Re:Looks simple

[ShavenYak]

Nope, that won't work. The cat can then land, feet 'down', on either the above surface or the below surface. There is no force trying to attract the cat's back to one of the surfaces, like in the traditional BT-FAGE (Buttered Toast - Feline AntiGravity Engine) design.

Unfortunately, much research remains to be done before the BT-FAGE becomes reality. We are dealing with forces far beyond our present understanding of the universe. All experimenters who have attempted to harness these forces have ended up with multiple flesh wounds, covered in butter, or both.

Re:I'll take the latter.

[junkgrep]

What are you talking about? Boeing already produces an entire line of gravity defying products...

The way things are going...

[flacco]

I wouldn't be surprised if the block-and-tackle industry buys the patents and kills the technology.

Military Uses

[CaffeineAddict2001]

I learned this in quake:
Step 1: Lower gravity to 0
Step 2: Wait for enemies to accelerate upwards.
Step 3: Increase gravity to 255, watch enemies splatter all over the ground.

Re:a simpler way

[colmore]

This fails both under quantum physics and general relativity.

Under the quantum physics interperetation, since both the cat's feet and the buttered toast are equally likely to land on the floor, the cat-toast enters a superposition where both cat and toast are simultaneously on the floor until it is observed, at which point a radioactive particle decays, and the cat is skinned in a number simultaneous, equally likely, yet distinct ways.

Relativity predicts that the intense attraction to the floor will, in fact, bend space-time in such a way that the floor actually is in contact with both the cat and the toast. If the cat is of the black variety, then it will thus cross its own path, generate a singularity, and vanish in a puff of logic.

The debate continues, as attempts at experimental verification have thus far failed. Dr. Kibble at Princeton's IAS said "Look, have YOU ever tried to hold a cat still and strap some friggin' TOAST to its back?"