A Must-Read for the Flying Sorcery GB

[AeroplaneDriver]

I'm sure this will get moved once the FSGB forum is up and running, but for now I thought this as probably the place to put it.

Anyone interested in the more far-out aspect of the Flying Sorcery GB should pick up a copy of "The Hunt for Zero Point" by Nick Cook 

http://www.amazon.com/Hunt-Zero-Point-Classified-Antigravity/dp/0767906284

I got this book a few years a go, and once I started into it thought it was a bit of a weirdo-conspiracy theory-space cadet type book.  It deals with ultra secret German WWII anti-gravity research and the allied/Soviet research that built on it after the war, as well as the main subject of zero-point energy.  Sounds pretty far fetched, right (especially the Nazi time manipulation!).  Except, it is written by a highly respected aerospace journalist who was an editor for Janes, and who has won several writing awards from the Royal Aeronautical Society. 

There is a lot of info (factual, speculative, and anecdotal) on real flying disc and anti gravity projects, including the Avro 1794 mach 4 saucer project and  the Avro Manta.  It also mentions BAE Systems' Project Greenglow, a confirmed BAE research project into anti-gravity and gravity shielding that was started around 2000.  There is some official BAE artwork depicting a strike aircraft that appears to have conventional jet engines in a semi-flying wing platform, but with an anti-gravity lift system.

It's an incredibly interesting book, that would be easy to dismiss as pure fantasy if it weren't for the author's credentials and some of the sources he cites.  Instead of discarding it as new-age pseudo-science I ended up reading it cover to cover and wondering 'what if..?'.

[GTX]

or maybe have a look here:

http://www.aeronautics.ru/literature4.htm

Regards,

Greg

[r16]

respected names in aviation literature tend to get interested in this field . I know Bill Gunston had himself a patent about the anti-gravity aircraft . But the best story for today is the one I have . It is 1979 , we have been denied the right to co produce F-16s . Our glorious aviation industry has just build an agricultural aircraft ,the Blue Light 78 ; but this doesn't satisfy the appetite of certain high ranking officers .Pronto a Turkish scientist  decrease the weight of a subject by electricity . And the children's magazine I buy for the adventures of an air force officer runs this article on the flying saucers we will have by 1990 . Mach 20 in the air , 40 in space , reaches moon in a day ... Turkish space travellers , inform me as a proud Turk if you see them , as I was about 9 at the time , I thought there was something to it .The scientist was low in the university ; professors in my country would avoid appearing in newspapers with a such invention .

a book by Bill Gunston actually blames US aviation industry in hindering true advances in science . He touched the subject in Air International too .

[TsrJoe]

... unfortunately Nick Cook's book is just a pile of badly researched conspiracy theory bs. (for anyone interested, theres an original file at the National Archives covering Avro's VTO. the project having no relevance to supposed 'gravity' research whatsoever! and theres ga. drawings avaliable online via issued patents covering the various incarnations of John Frost's Avro designs!)

...what annoyed me most about it apart from its 'im treading a dangerous path/cloak and dagger' type writing style, was that if the author truly had access to such 'priviledged' information he added his own tangent too it and corrupted the source material to suit some outlandish fantasy idea...makes for a fun read i guess tho but def in the fictional category

... the 'Greenglow' references in particular annoyed me, i know of a few studies carried out under the programme, BAe.'s speculative design project meriting a piece by a researcher a little more 'feet on the ground'!

sorry for the rant but id have expected more from a 'Janes' writer, a more 'fun' read is any of the 'Nazi flying saucer' or 'man made ufo.' books published over the years

cheers, Joe 

[cthulhu77]

What about Bob L ? Word.

[AeroplaneDriver]

... unfortunately Nick Cook's book is just a pile of badly researched conspiracy theory bs. (for anyone interested, theres an original file at the National Archives covering Avro's VTO. the project having no relevance to supposed 'gravity' research whatsoever! and theres ga. drawings avaliable online via issued patents covering the various incarnations of John Frost's Avro designs!)

...what annoyed me most about it apart from its 'im treading a dangerous path/cloak and dagger' type writing style, was that if the author truly had access to such 'priviledged' information he added his own tangent too it and corrupted the source material to suit some outlandish fantasy idea...makes for a fun read i guess tho but def in the fictional category

... the 'Greenglow' references in particular annoyed me, i know of a few studies carried out under the programme, BAe.'s speculative design project meriting a piece by a researcher a little more 'feet on the ground'!

sorry for the rant but id have expected more from a 'Janes' writer, a more 'fun' read is any of the 'Nazi flying saucer' or 'man made ufo.' books published over the years

cheers, Joe 

Ouch.  sorry I posted it.

I just thought it was an entertaining read and good source inspiration for a whif build...

[comrade harps]

Yep, read it and it's a rollicking good tale, if only it accepted that some of the hyperbole from the yanks in the 50s just might have been deliberate mis-information to send the Reds up the garden path. It reminds me of the wizz-bang flying stuff that Popular Mechanics and the like still does.

That said about its real-world implications, I agree that if in an alternative universe anti-grav were that easy, from the 1950s, then you'd have a great deal to play with when it came to whatiffing.

An anti-grav group build, maybe?

You could adapt real world planes too. Is Bill Gunston still sticking to his idea that the B-2 has an anti-grav device?

comrade harps

[TsrJoe]

re 'anti gravity' or 'gravity shielding' research, theres a study paper on gravitics quoted in Nick Cook's book re ongoing research in the 1950's referring to aerospace companies looking into the field, a copy of the paper in its original format i came across in a file at the National Archives/PRO.
Again from this one item alone id have loved to have seen someone delving a little deeper into what is being referred to (it seems to be more then the Townsend Brown 'electric wind' experiments?)
Ill agree with my colleague posters that the book is an interesting read to while away a winters evening, the high spot for me being reproduction of an old 'Popular Mechanics' sketch of a possible 'gravitational research vehicle' so much so i started working on a model of same the next day! lol.

cheers, Joe 

[HOG]

For the real deal on anti grav see Rainbow Bridge video.
I just love old hippies ;

[Doc Yo]

 A couple of other recomendations for the reading list:

GENESIS by W.A, Harbinson

http://www.amazon.com/GENESIS-Projekt-Saucer-Book-2/dp/0440128323/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208382987&sr=1-5

Though technically 'book 2' its fairly complete, and a crackin' good read. ( Fiction )

and

MAN-MADE UFOs: FIFTY YEARS OF SUPPRESSION by Renato Vesco and David Hatcher Childress

http://www.amazon.com/Man-Made-UFOs-1944-1994-Years-Suppression/dp/0932813232/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208383215&sr=1-2

Utter nonsense as aviation history, but its chock full of good plan views, and an entertaining, if
loopy, alternate history.  ( "Non"-Fiction. Whcih is just what "they" want you to believe...)

[TsrJoe]

[Rheged]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_flying_saucer

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4801928.stm



Proof that even our very own British Rail had ideas.  There is a chap contributes to this site who worked for B R at the time in question..................

[PR19_Kit]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_flying_saucer

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4801928.stm



Proof that even our very own British Rail had ideas.  There is a chap contributes to this site who worked for B R at the time in question..................

Oh no, not 'Frederick's Folly' again! 

Charles Frederick was an Assistant Director at the Railway Technical Centre when I was there but we weren't in the same area.

I doubt that nuclear powered flying saucers would need tilt systems.....

[zenrat]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_flying_saucer

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4801928.stm



Proof that even our very own British Rail had ideas.  There is a chap contributes to this site who worked for B R at the time in question..................

...Charles Frederick was an Assistant Director at the Railway Technical Centre when I was there but we weren't in the same area...

Ah, but you would say that now...