University of South Carolina gravity generator
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 7
| Date | 1 March 1998 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Propulsion & physics (topic) |
| People | Ning Li |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 131 |
| Year | 1998 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1998 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 7 |
The University of South Carolina "gravity generator" was a device described in an announcement from the university's Office of Technology Transfer. It said the device would "create a force beam in any desired direction", and offered it for licensing or joint development.[1] The writer Charles Platt found the announcement reprinted in an amateur antigravity newsletter and reported it in Wired in March 1998.[1] The technology-transfer office confirmed that it was genuine, but said it had been released prematurely and that the university preferred no publicity.[1] Platt linked the device to the physicist Douglas Torr, who had earlier co-authored papers with Ning Li predicting that superconductors might affect gravity.[1] No results and no working device were ever made public in the sources read here. A 2024 timeline submitted to Congress records the episode under 1 March 1998.[7]
The announcement
- Where Platt found it. Platt received a copy of Antigravity News and Space Drive Technology from a contact. He described it as an amateur zine "that looked like a 1970s counterculture manifesto", typed on a daisywheel printer, photocopied and stapled. It was "a hopeless muddle of wacky ideas and grandiose claims".[1]
- What it said. On its back cover the zine reproduced an announcement from the University of South Carolina's Office of Technology Transfer. It described a "gravity generator" that would create a force beam in any desired direction, and ended: "University seeks licensee and/or joint development. USC ID number: 96140."[1]
- The university's answer. Platt called the number given and reached an assistant in the office who, "sounding not very happy", confirmed the announcement was genuine. She said it "was presented prematurely, it got wider distribution than we intended", and that the university was "still working on the technology" and "would prefer not to receive any publicity".[1]
Douglas Torr
- The patent application. The office refused to say whether Torr was involved. But Platt found an Annual Report to the Faculty Senate on the university's website that listed Torr's name on a patent application for the gravity generator. "This was totally bizarre," Platt wrote: "a respected university supposedly looking for commercial partners to develop a gadget straight out of a 1950s science-fiction novel."[1]
- Torr and Li. According to Platt, Torr, then a senior scientist at the University of Alabama, began writing papers with the physicist Ning Li in 1990 predicting that superconductors could affect gravity. That was before Eugene Podkletnov's claimed results, which Li and Torr welcomed as an accidental validation.[1]
- NASA's interest. The University of Alabama had a good working relationship with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. Li and Torr persuaded NASA to start a long-term investigation; Li stayed involved, while Torr moved to South Carolina.[1] (See Ning Li superconductor gravity test.)
The 2024 UFO timeline compiled by Michael Shellenberger for the House Oversight Committee goes further. It says Torr and Timir Datta of the University of South Carolina "confirm they are involved" in developing a gravity generator, and that a leaked document from the technology-transfer office confirms this.[7] In Platt's account, however, the office refused to confirm Torr's involvement, and Torr's name came only from the faculty senate report; Datta is not mentioned.[1] The timeline adds that Torr later founded PST Associates LLC in North Carolina, which had one contract from DARPA in 2006, and that he co-authored at least one paper with Li.[7]
Context: the 1990s gravity claims
Platt's article, "Breaking the law of gravity", surveyed a wave of 1990s gravity-control claims.[1][5]
- Podkletnov's claim. The best known was Eugene Podkletnov's report that small objects above a spinning superconducting ceramic disc lost about 2 per cent of their weight.[1][2]
- Podkletnov's troubles. His 1996 paper for the Journal of Physics D was leaked to the Sunday Telegraph, which announced "the world's first anti-gravity device". In the uproar he withdrew it. He left Tampere University of Technology in 1997 and has since avoided public appearances.[2]
- The sceptics. Most physicists laughed. "I think it's safe to say gravity shielding is not conceivable," said Riley Newman of UC Irvine, who suspected Podkletnov had measured magnetic fields or air currents rather than real weight loss.[1]
- Other experimenters. Platt also visited James Woodward, who claimed to reduce the mass of vibrating capacitors, and NASA's Marshall team, who were trying to replicate Podkletnov's work.[1]
- Other sources. A 2001 Slashdot discussion of a claimed "gravitational repulsion effect" is listed as later context.[6] A 2018 talk on antigravity history from Huntsville's HAL5 society is listed but its PDF text could not be read.[3] An archived copy of Platt's article could not be loaded.[4]
The earlier version of this article said physicists Platt consulted told him that true gravity shielding consistent with general relativity would require enormous mass and energy. The sources read here record Newman's view that gravity shielding is "not conceivable", rather than that specific argument.[1]
Outcome
- Nothing further. No results from the South Carolina project, and no working gravity generator, were made public in the sources read here. The timeline notes that "no further information is made public".[7]
- Not confirmed. None of the 1990s gravity-shielding claims Platt surveyed was confirmed.[1][2]
People and topics
- McDonnell Douglas — The aerospace company that ran several quiet studies of UFOs and propulsion.
- Ning Li — Physicist who tested superconductor gravity claims at NASA Marshall.
On the Timeline
- Bigelow's expectation of a UFO announcement (1998) (11 January 1998) — Bigelow tells Vallée he feels a dramatic UAP development is coming soon.
- Zero-point field theory of inertia paper (1998) (August 1998) — Puthoff and Lockheed researchers publish a paper on inertia and vacuum energy.
See every 1998 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Charles Platt, "Breaking the law of gravity", Wired (March 1998) · wired.com · archived copy
- Eugene Podkletnov — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Antigravity research history talk (2018, PDF) — HAL5 · hal5.org · archived copy
- Charles Platt, 'Breaking the Law of Gravity' (Wired 6.03, 1998), archived copy · geocities.ws · archived copy
- Press coverage of antigravity research, 1990s — Patrick Gross · ufologie.patrickgross.org · archived copy
- Gravitational repulsion effect claimed (2001) — Slashdot · science.slashdot.org · archived copy
- Michael Shellenberger, written testimony to the House Oversight Committee (13 November 2024), p. 131 · oversight.house.gov
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia article “Eugene Podkletnov”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
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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