Documents / FOIA release
This unclassified CIA-distributed JPRS translation, dated 1 December 1992, reproduces an article by Lieutenant Colonel V. Maksimovskiy from the Moscow journal Aviatsiya i Kosmonavtika. It describes V. Shabetnik's proposed propulsion method for a spherical craft covered in superconducting material and driven by electron accelerators rather than hydrocarbon fuel. It reports tests in March and May 1992 in which a small superconductor model developed more than 22.5 grams of force, and it notes that the models moved like flying saucers.
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## Document 2 of 4 Page 4 of the on-board accelerators (and of course, the external gravitational force of celestial bodies). If it flies at an acceleration equal to that of the earth, the craft will reach a speed close to the speed of light in less than a year. The craft will continue in free flight into the vicinity of the planetary system or star being studied and then it will decelerate. This is how we may travel through the galaxy, resolving the problem of weightlessness for astronauts at the same time. 16. Some readers will think this is another fantasy like the 'perpetual' engine. This is not surprising-a completely normal reaction. But does the author only have ideas? Of course not! Realizing how difficult it will be to defend his theory and believing it necessary to achieve recognition in scientific circles right away, Vasiliy Dmitriyevich adopted a flexible tactic. He delivered papers at Gagarin and Tsiolkovskiy lectures and certain scientific conferences and filed claims for the invention. By working in a sectorial NPO, he made his work noticed by high scientific officials, and they have not hindered him. Now there are published works, and they are known here and abroad. Now we cannot pretend that there is no theory. ## 17. What Has Been Done? 18. But how is practice a criterion for truth? And practice already exists. Persons were found at the NPO EM [Experimental Machine Building Scientific Production Association], including managers such as V. Pallo (he is the chairman of the enterprise's Astronautics Federation Committee), who considered it expedient to conduct experiments to verify the new principles that had been set forth. These tests were held in March and May this year. The work was put into the official records of the respected organization and a movie was made. The behavior of models of high-temperature superconducting materials of the Y-Ba-Cu-0 type was studied when joined to a hull in which electrodes had been arranged. A pulse (about 7 ns) of electrical current (about 150 amperes) was fed to them, bringing about the flow of electrons. The models were placed in tanks with liquid nitrogen, since the effect of superconductivity appears at that temperature. The last test was most significant: a superconductor 1.7 square centimeters in area developed a force of more than 22.5 grams. It was 1.5 millimeters thick and had a mass of 2 grams. 19. In addition, the high-temperature superconducting material that Shabetnik developed is undergoing an official test. 20. What conclusions have the researchers drawn? First of all, that the principles set forth by the author are correct. Secondly, in the
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 5 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.