The Lifter1 replicated successfully
by Bruno Tilgner ( Canada )

created on January 2, 2002 - JLN Labs - Last update January 14, 2002
All informations in this page are published free and are intended for private/educational purposes and not for commercial applications

Bonjour  Monsieur Naudin.

Just wanted to inform you that we managed to get a successful lift off of a Lifter version 1 using a 24 KV power source on December 22.  We had to raise the positive wire to a height of 40 mm due to arcing.  This was probably due to humidity in the room at the time.  Though lift was unstable it was definite lifting to a tethered height of approximately 1 foot above the launch surface. Construction was to Lifter 1 specifications using a single sheet of foil for the capacitor, 40mm in height, three straws for the frame with three coffee stir-sticks as the support struts for the positive charge wire.  The Lifter only lifted on two sides until we moved the ground to a position diametrically opposite to the power source connection to the lifter. 

Currently we are looking to increase our power source capability before continuing with our experiments. 

Here are the photo's of our first lifter flight test of December 22, 2001 as mentioned.  Please feel free to post them.  Since then we have had several more succesful tests using smaller lifters of approximately 120mm per side.  We hope to use these as the basis point for testing various configurations.  Rather than use three tether lines we rigged a guide line through the centre of the lifter and used a single line as a tether in order to reduce weight.  Another method we considered using was to attach two guidelines to the ceiling at a slightly greater width than the lifter and attaching it to the launch surface inside the Lifter itself.  Thus as the Lifter rises it will eventually slow itself down to a height based on on the angle of the two guide wires.  Though this causes some stress on the frame it does allow for a lower take-off weight and thus a lower level power source can be used.

Regards,

Bruno Tilgner

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