The Ion Wind tests on the Lifters by JL Naudin

The Ion Wind Tests on Transdimensional's Lifter
By Jean-Louis Naudin
created on October 10th, 2001 - JLN Labs - Last update October 25th, 2001
All informations in this page are published free and are intended for private/educational purposes and not for commercial applications

In the Birmingham Business Journal ( July 19, 2001 ) we can read : " The scientific community has also mistaken Power3 for ion wind propulsion, although Transdimensional says ion wind contributes less than 2 percent of the system's total motive force. "

So, I have conducted two tests to check if the fact of removing the ion wind is able to cancel the upward thrust.

The Lifter1 that previously tested on Oct 1, 2001, has been used for these tests. The three thin copper wires has been completly insulated with Three 5 mm diam plastic tubes so as to remove the ion wind previously generated by these thin wires.

With these plastic tube the Lifter1 is not able to self-levitate, so it has been placed on a Roberval balance and insultated with a polystyren box.

TEST RESULT : When the High Voltage power supply is switched ON ( 41.9 KV @ 90uA - 3.7 Watts ), the Lifter1 goes upward and the needle of beam balance move to the left. ( see the photo and the video of the test below )

To check again if the main lifting thrust is not generated by the ion wind. I have used a thick cardboard sheet between one wire and the main armature. In the case of the ion wind generates all the thrust, when a cardboard shield is placed below one of the wires, the Lifter must tilt on one side due to the resulting asymmetrical flow.
A such test has also been performed by Transdimensionnal Technologies ( see : http://www.tdimension.com/video_pages/lifter_ion.htm )

TEST RESULT : When the High Voltage power supply is switched ON, the device remains stable and continue to hovering at the same level. ( see the photos and the videos below )

The Lifter has been completly enclosed with a plastic bag and placed on a Robeval balance.

TEST RESULT : When the High Voltage power supply is switched ON, the Lifter goes upward with the plastic bag and the needle of beam balance move to the right. ( see the photo and the video of the test below )

The purpose of this test is to measure the ion wind generated below the surface of Lifter. I have used Huger Wind speed meter WSC100H. This windmeter has a measuring range for wind speed: 0 to 220 km/h, 0 to 115 knots, 0 to 60 m/s, 0 to 125 miles/h with an accuracy of +/- 3% from -30° to 70° C.

TEST RESULT : The Wind Speed meter is placed below the surface of the Lifter and moved along the entire of the this area, the average ion wind speed measured is about 1.5 mph ( 0.67 Meter/sec ). The ion wind contribution to the upward thrust is more than the 2% claimed by Transdimensional Technologies, but it is not sufficiency to lift the device.

Force on an Asymmetric Capacitor

Thomas B. Bahder and Chris Fazi
US Army Research Laboratory
2800 Powder Mill Road
Adelphi, Maryland 20783-1197

When a high voltage (~30 kV) is applied to a capacitor whose electrodes have different physical dimensions,
the capacitor experiences a net force toward the smaller electrode (Biefeld-Brown effect). We have
verified this effect by building four capacitors of different shapes. The effect may have applications to
vehicle propulsion and dielectric pumps. We review the history of this effect briefly through the history of
patents by Thomas Townsend Brown. At present, the physical basis for the Biefeld-Brown effect is not
understood. The order of magnitude of the net force on the asymmetric capacitor is estimated assuming two
different mechanisms of charge conduction between its electrodes: ballistic ionic wind and ionic drift. The
calculations indicate that ionic wind is at least three orders of magnitude too small to explain the magnitude
of the observed force on the capacitor. The ionic drift transport assumption leads to the correct order of
magnitude for the force, however, it is difficult to see how ionic drift enters into the theory. Finally, we
present a detailed thermodynamic treatment of the net force on an asymmetric capacitor. In the future, to
understand this effect, a detailed theoretical model must be constructed that takes into account plasma
effects: ionization of gas (or air) in the high electric field region, charge transport, and resulting dynamic
forces on the electrodes. The next series of experiments should determine whether the effect occurs in
vacuum, and a careful study should be carried out to determine the dependence of the observed force on gas
pressure, gas species and applied voltage.

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