Podkletnov gold-layer claim (2020)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 7
Podkletnov gold-layer claim (2020)
| Date | 4 February 2020 (video and interview) |
|---|---|
| Claimant | Eugene Podkletnov, Russian ceramics engineer |
| Device | Fast-spinning disc with an ion-implanted thin gold layer on an aluminium base, at room temperature |
| Claimed effect | "Modification of the local gravitational field"; 300–500 kg per square metre of lift or attraction |
| Earlier claims | Rotating superconductor weight loss (1992, 1996); "impulse gravity generator" (2001) |
| Replication | None independent in the sources read here |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 195 |
| Topics | Propulsion & physics (topic) |
| People | Eugene Podkletnov |
| Year | 2020 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 2020 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 10 |
In February 2020 the Russian engineer Eugene Podkletnov showed a video in which a sample suspended above a fast-spinning disc appeared to be affected. He presented it as evidence of what he called "a modification of the local gravitational field". Unlike his famous 1990s experiments with superconductors, the disc was, he said, an ion-implanted gold layer on an aluminium base, working at room temperature.[1] He claimed the technique could produce a lifting or attractive force of about 300 to 500 kilograms per square metre. The anonymous UAP timeline in Michael Shellenberger's 2024 congressional testimony lists the claim under 4 February 2020.[1][9] No independent replication has been reported in the sources read here.
Podkletnov
- Podkletnov graduated from the Mendeleyev Institute of chemical technology in Moscow and spent 15 years at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute for High Temperatures. He then earned a doctorate in materials science at Tampere University of Technology in Finland and continued superconductor research there until 1997.[3]
- The 1992 discovery. He told Wired's Charles Platt that in a 1992 experiment, pipe smoke rose in a column above a rotating superconducting disc. When the team put objects above it on a balance, "any object above the disc lost some of its weight", and the effect grew when the disc rotated.[3] His 1992 paper in Physica C reported about 0.3% weight reduction.[1][3]
- The 1996 controversy. A longer paper claiming about 2% was accepted by the Journal of Physics D, but was leaked to the Sunday Telegraph. Its story of 1 September 1996 began: "Scientists in Finland are about to reveal details of the world's first anti-gravity device." His laboratory director said Podkletnov had worked on his own. The listed co-author, Petri Vuorinen, said his name had been used without consent. Podkletnov said he had never claimed to block gravity, only to reduce its effect. He withdrew the paper, and the furore is reported to be the main reason he lost his post in 1997.[3][1]
- The impulse generator. In 2001 he and the Italian physicist Giovanni Modanese described an "impulse gravity generator". In it, high-voltage discharges from a charged superconducting electrode, with peak currents over 104 A, potentials over 1 MV, temperatures down to 40 K and trapped fields up to 1 T, produced a focused beam that "exerts a short repulsive force on small movable objects". They said the impulse was proportional to mass and independent of composition, "and cannot be understood in the framework of general relativity".[5][8]
Replication attempts and industry interest
- Podkletnov said in 1997 that his work had been reproduced at universities in Toronto and Sheffield. Nobody there confirmed it, and the Sheffield work was only ever a partial replication that never reached his conditions.[3]
- A May 1997 paper by Frederic N. Rounds, cited in the earlier version of this article as Podkletnov's own, weighed YBa2Cu3O7 samples during warming. It reported "unexpected variations in the system weight". It noted how hard it is, in Podkletnov's set-up, to separate any "gravitational shielding" from ordinary magnetic or electric forces.[4]
- Boeing and GRASP. A BBC report said Boeing researchers were funding a project called GRASP (Gravity Research for Advanced Space Propulsion) to build a device based on Podkletnov's work. Boeing denied funding it with company money but said it could not comment on "black projects". In July 2002 Jane's Defence Weekly's Nick Cook reported a GRASP briefing saying: "If gravity modification is real, it will alter the entire aerospace business." It said Boeing, BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin had tried to approach Podkletnov, who was "strongly anti-military".[3][10]
- NASA. According to the timeline's summary of the 2020 interview, Podkletnov said NASA's attempt to replicate his experiment noticed unusual effects but ran out of money at the last stage. He said the "Department of Defense" then took over the experiments, which went to Ning Li, and that neither NASA nor he got anything from them.[9] The earlier version of this article said a NASA-backed effort built apparatus but never completed a full test, and that one analysis suggested aerodynamic lift on the samples could explain the measured effects. That analysis is not covered in the sources read here.
The 2020 claim
- In the video's audio, Podkletnov said: "I don't call this effect gravitational shielding, but a modification of the local gravitational field." He said the work grew out of experiments begun 30 years earlier on high-speed rotating objects with superconducting parts. He had concluded that superconductors were needed only to create a certain electron density, so "we are working with very thin gold layers that generate the same effect at room temperature".[1]
- He said the technique could generate 300–500 kg per square metre of lift, and that depending on the geometry the force could be repulsive or attractive.[1][9] The timeline adds that it works in a vacuum and in air.[9]
- A later summary of his work describes the room-temperature device as a disc in a vacuum chamber spinning at roughly 8,000–12,000 rpm. It says the effect appeared only above a threshold speed and that 30–50 gram samples were said to rise several centimetres.[2]
- Rotating fields. According to the timeline, Podkletnov said that for space travel it would be better to use a similar principle with magnetic fields rotating at high speed.[9] The same summary describes a later "asymmetric toroidal-solenoid" device, which he said briefly lifted its own mass for 15–20 seconds before overheating.[2]
Assessment
- No independent replication or peer-reviewed confirmation of any of Podkletnov's effects appears in the sources read here.[3] The Spanish science magazine Muy Interesante, reviewing the 2020 video, asked whether he knew something the rest of physics did not, "or is it, as seems more likely, a real bluff?"[1]
- Since leaving Tampere he has largely avoided public appearances, and his later claims rest on interviews and videos rather than published data.[3][2]
People and topics
- Eugene Podkletnov — Russian engineer who claimed spinning superconductors reduce gravity.
On the Timeline
- Doty on Serpo believers (2020) (2 February 2020) — Richard Doty allegedly says some DIA members believe parts of the SERPO 'exchange' rumor.
- Puthoff denies threats (2020) (8 February 2020) — Hal Puthoff denies rumors his family was threatened over antigravity information.
See every 2020 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- "Muy Interesante" report on Podkletnov's 2020 video · muyinteresante.okdiario.com · archived copy
- "Podkletnov's four gravity control experiments", AltPropulsion · altpropulsion.com · archived copy
- Eugene Podkletnov — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Frederic N. Rounds, "Anomalous weight behavior in YBa2Cu3O7 compounds at low temperature" (May 1997), arXiv · arxiv.org
- E. Podkletnov and G. Modanese, "Impulse gravity generator based on charged YBa2Cu3O7 superconductor" (2001), arXiv · arxiv.org · archived copy
- "Eugene Podkletnov's new gravity modification experiment & video", Medium (Predict) · medium.com · archived copy
- medium.com · medium.com · archived copy
- arxiv.org · arxiv.org · archived copy
- Michael Shellenberger, written testimony to the House Oversight Committee (13 November 2024), p. 195 · oversight.house.gov
- Shellenberger testimony, pp. 148–149 (29 July 2002, Project GRASP) · 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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