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Costing more than one billion dollars and capable of a cruising speed of Mach 8, or 5280mph, the 'hypersonic' Aurora is just the latest UFO the US Air Force is keeping tight-lipped about. It is said to be powered by 'pulsed detonation wave engines', theoretically capable of producing speeds of Mach 10 at altitudes of 55 kilometres. Although the US Air Force continues to deny the plane even exists, reports of heavy sonic booms and unusual 'doughnut-chain' contrails over the southwest US suggest something's definitely going on out there.
Meanwhile Nasa scientist Jonathan Campbell, investigating electrical propulsion systems, was granted a patent for a high-voltage 'antigravity' device based on the one T Townsend Brown was developing early in the 20th century. Commonly known as a 'lifter', this flat triangular platform made of balsa wood, copper wire and aluminium foil had been around for some time, inspiring an online community of experimenters to exchange ideas and information on the possible connection between electromagnetic fields and antigravity.
Put anything over 20,000 volts through a lifter, and it will rise effortlessly into the air without the aid of rotors or wings and with no moving parts whatsoever. Is this antigravity at work? No, say the physicists, it's merely an example of 'ion wind': electrons streaming off the capacitor, ionising the surrounding air and causing the distinct motion. Campbell, however, thinks it might serve as a 'Martian glider', using the Red Planet's atmosphere for propulsion. Perhaps T Townsend Brown had been right all along.
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