Northrop electroaerodynamics research (1968)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 7
| Date | 1968 |
|---|---|
| People | Nick Cook |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 70 |
| Year | 1968 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1968 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 10 |
In January 1968 two aerodynamicists at the Northrop Corporation, Maurice Cahn and Gustav Andrew, presented a paper to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) suggesting that electric fields projected ahead of a supersonic aircraft might reduce drag and soften or remove the sonic boom.[1][2]
The paper
Their paper, "Electroaerodynamics in Supersonic Flow" (AIAA paper 68-24), was given at the AIAA's 6th Aerospace Sciences Meeting on 22–24 January 1968. The researchers applied high direct-current voltages to small models fitted with pointed conductors, tested in small wind tunnels and in flowing liquids. The idea was that the field would ionise molecules ahead of the model, and that the model's own charge would push them aside before they reached its leading edge, changing the shock waves that produce the sonic boom.[1][2][3]
Coverage
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Time magazine reported the work in February 1968, describing it as a possible remedy for the sonic-boom problem facing the planned U.S. supersonic transport (SST). It noted that ionisation would make the aircraft glow blue at night and that the power required might be too great to be economical — a question Cahn said he could not yet answer, though he argued that reduced drag would cut the power needed. He said larger tests were being considered by Northrop, Boeing and NASA.[2]
Follow-up
Cahn and Andrew presented further results in 1970 (AIAA paper 70-759), reporting that at Mach 1.4, applying around 10–15 kilovolts to a rod produced large changes in the shock pattern, and that observations in a liquid suggested the shock pattern was flattened. Other researchers analysed electro-aerodynamic devices for sonic-boom reduction around 1969. The U.S. SST program was cancelled in 1971, and no aircraft adopted the technique; in 2001 French experimenter Jean-Louis Naudin reported a small hobbyist replication using a liquid surface.[3]
UFO connection
Writers on secret propulsion, including Nick Cook in The Hunt for Zero Point (2001), have noted that open research on electrical flight effects largely faded after the early 1970s and suggested it may have continued in classified programs. There is no documentary evidence of that, and related ideas such as plasma flow control have continued in open aerospace research.[3][4]
People and topics
- Nick Cook — Jane's Defence Weekly aviation editor and author of The Hunt for Zero Point.
- The Hunt for Zero Point — Nick Cook's 2001 book on secret anti-gravity research.
On the Timeline
- Camp Pendleton Marine's crash-site claim (1967) (3 July 1967) — A Marine says he flew to a crash retrieval site in the desert in 1967.
- Lyndon Johnson's informal UFO study (1968) — A study for President Johnson reportedly says UAP are real and under intelligent control.
See every 1968 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- M. S. Cahn and G. M. Andrew, "Electroaerodynamics in supersonic flow", AIAA paper 68-24 (1968) · arc.aiaa.org · archived copy
- "Aerodynamics: charged aircraft", Time (2 Feb 1968) · time.com · archived copy
- "The Northrop shock wave reduction experiment", JLN Labs (2001) · linas.org · archived copy
- Nick Cook, *The Hunt for Zero Point* (2001), Internet Archive · archive.org · archived copy
- Electroaerodynamics in supersonic flow (Cahn & Andrew, AIAA 68-24) and replication — JLN Labs archive · linas.org · archived copy
- U.S. patent citing the Northrop electroaerodynamic research (PDF) — USPTO · image-ppubs.uspto.gov · archived copy
- worldcat.org · worldcat.org · archived copy
- archive.org · archive.org · archived copy
- amazon.com · amazon.com · archived copy
- integrity-research.org · integrity-research.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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