In the early 90s, I read a then-current book, a true story, about an RAF guy, initially based in Scotland who, to put it succinctly, believed he had discovered a method of supersonic travel using gyroscopes. The book describes his research and the agony of finding resources and financial backing.
I cannot remember who wrote it, published it or the name of it.
Can anyone help?
By: Chipmunk Carol - 27th December 2007 at 21:38
Found it!
Well it only took 11 months, but I’ve found the book I was looking for after it being mentioned very briefly on TV tonight.
All info here: http://www.gyroscopes.org/propulsion.asp
The man in question is Sandy Kidd, the book – ‘BEYOND 2001 – the Laws of Physics Revolutionized’. That book (first published in 1990 by Sidgwick & Jackson – ISBN 0 283 99925 X
The story has all the frustration of a Hollywood high-tension thriller. You realise that this guy has one of the best discoveries ever, but no one will pay for the research into making it an economically viable way of travel.
If anyone know what happened next in this story, I’d love to know.
By: Chipmunk Carol - 20th January 2007 at 15:16
Thanks Cypherus. Can you recommend a good link to any news on the designs you describe?
This thread is creating as many questions for me as it is answers.
First the questions:
1. Name of the books author?
2. Name of the book?
3. What happened to his design ideas?
So far I have had some good answers to (3) although we cannot tell if they were designed in parallel with this gentleman’s idea. At the end of the book, having been unable to get backing from neither the UK nor the US, either from the military or commercially, he moved his idea to Australia. Australia is where the scramjet (Google it & HyShot) is being developed along with Boeing & QinetiQ involvement. I have not yet read enough to know if his gyroscope ideas are somehow incorporated into the scramjet or whether the idea was bought and buried, so that it did not compete with the scramjet.
The book mentions that his dream would be to reduce the travel time from the UK to Australia to minutes. This is how the scramjet capabilities are being described. They are looking at Mach 10 at the moment. How exciting is that!
Still questions 1 & 2 are still left unanswered.
By: cypherus - 20th January 2007 at 14:48
The dynamics of circular plan form wings have been well researched and have been found to have good and stable flight capabilities however the problems soon become apparent when trying to apply these to real world aviation requirements and the fact that they do not comply with the area rule theory, a number of flying models and flying prototypes have been constructed over the years, found to work well within the limits defined but again have no real world viable applications other than maybe the exotic domains of research establishments like NASA who I believe once considered this plan form for a re-entry vehicle.
By: Chipmunk Carol - 19th January 2007 at 16:16
Well that is good news. It would be a pity if the idea remained as a toy. He was hoping to reduce flight time to Australia to minutes rather than days/hours.
I found this too, which is the experiment that he did years ago and found impossible to repeat when the prospective financial backers were around.
Amazing Gravitron
http://www.amazing1.com/grav.htm
By: Newforest - 19th January 2007 at 16:02
The fact that I have heard nothing since, leaves me to believe the idea failed. I was wondering if there was any work progressing on it away from the media glare.
Yes, there is. So far it has travelled the length of two football pitches.
The full size version is a U.K. black project.
And NASA is interested!
By: Chipmunk Carol - 19th January 2007 at 14:47
I think you would find this book utterly fascinating. You are left believing that this guy is on the threshold of a major breakthrough in, possibly, hypersonic travel.
The fact that I have heard nothing since, leaves me to believe the idea failed. I was wondering if there was any work progressing on it away from the media glare.
By: Kernowglyn - 19th January 2007 at 14:39
Sorry, I can’t help you with the name of the book you read, but gyroscopes are fascinating devices. An old gentleman who lived locally had spent the war years as a boffin, working with Frank Whittle at one point. After the war he inherited a large fortune, so never had to work again. His passion was studying the gyroscope. He told me that there were still many lessons to be learned from it and he regretted that he did not have sufficient lifetime left to him to fully complete his work. And there was I thinking it was a simple toy with limited applications!
Sign In
January 19, 2007 at 2:14 pm